Punjab, HAL look at manufacturing aircraft components in state

A three-member HAL team, including two Deputy General Managers from Bengaluru, is scheduled to arrive in Chandigarh on Friday for discussing the modalities of this venture. A prospective list of products that the HAL wants to manufacture in Punjab has been drawn up.

Besides, representatives of BrahMos, the firm that produces the supersonic precision cruise missile, are also expected to hold talks with the state government to examine the feasibility of producing weapon components in Punjab.

This was brought out at a seminar, 'Defence dialogue: How can North India contribute to the growing military industrial complex in India', organised by the Gyan Setu Think Tank in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry here on Thursday.

The Punjab Government is establishing a 1,200-acre industrial park in Rajpura in partnership with the Centre, which will provide 85 per cent funding for the project. About 200-250 acres in the park will be earmarked for the defence industry.

As part of its sectoral thrust on the aerospace and defence sector, Punjab is also developing drone testing infrastructure at the flying club in Patiala and establishing a Remote Pilot Training Organisation for drone operators.

Though Punjab has introduced several sops for defence manufacturers as part of its industrial development policy of 2022, the contribution of the state towards the military-industrial complex is “negligible”, as was highlighted by the Additional Director General, Army Design Bureau, Maj Gen CS Mann in his virtual address at the seminar.

He said out of the thousands of industries listed in the Army’s database, only 18 were in Punjab accounting for barely 0.01 per cent in the military industrial complex. He added that of the 1,327 responses received to the Army’s compendium of problem definition statements issued this year, only seven came from Punjab, which included four government institutes and one student.

He said in the past two years, about 116 contracts worth about Rs 1,08,000 crore have been signed by the Army, out of which only one was from Punjab. The ongoing research and development projects being handled by the Army Design Bureau are worth Rs 2,10,000 crore, in which Punjab has just one project valued at less than Rs 1 crore.

He added the industry in Punjab needs to move out of traditional domains and comfort zones and venture into emerging fields of advanced materials and autonomous and AI-enabled systems, which also require adequate support from the state government.

Col RS Bhatia (retd), president of the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers, said the Indian industry had the competence and capability to design and develop indigenous weapon systems and the government should provide accelerators and the requisite infrastructure for its expansion. He pointed out that the average growth of the military-industrial complex in India is 18 per cent, which is expected to continue.

Former Deputy Chief of the Army Staff Lt Gen JP Singh (retd) stressed on greater focus and budgetary allocation for research and development and said government policies must favour indigenisation and procedures should be fast-tracked.