Guten Morgen,
A very Good Morning and warm welcome to everyone present here!
May I begin by acknowledging the presence of the distinguished representatives from
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Swiss Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS),
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Association for Swiss Industry Participation in Security and Defence Procurement Programs (ASIPRO), and
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Swiss Defence Companies.
May I also thank the representative of the
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Indian Ministry of Defence Department of Defence Production,
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Tamil Nadu Defence Industrial Corridors,
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Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers and
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the Indian Defence Companies
for coming all the way from India to participate in today’s Seminar.
2. I would also like to sincerely thank Defence Advisor Brig A P Singh and Counsellor Mr Anoop Dhingra for their wholehearted effort in putting this event.
3. Friends, We live in uncertain times. Old multilateral structures are creaking. New structures are yet to evolve. There is re-adjustment and re-alignment going on in multilateral institutional frameworks.
4. In recent years, we have witnessed disruption in global supply chains, due to pandemic and other geopolitical and geostrategic ambitions of certain countries.
5. Like-minded democratic countries with shared values and ethos are, therefore, coming closer, in more compact formats, to deal with this flux situation. Noticeable, therefore, is the emergence of Regional and bilateral FTAs and new security groupings.
6. This is happening to safeguard strategic autonomy and wider economic interests of countries. On this account, I see strong complementarities between India and Switzerland. Our TEPA signing with EFTA countries earlier this month is in recognition to this fact. We hope to add another dimension such as deeper defence ties in identified niche technology areas to make our partnership wholesome and strategic.
7. Today’s seminar, first of its kind, is designed to provide insight into Indian and Swiss defence systems and industries. We hope to take advantage of the existing complementarities for constructing a mutually beneficial and future oriented engagement in defence ecosystem, including through joint production.
Our Indian participants will talk about the potential of the Indian Defence Industry to facilitate supply chain resilience as also investments in the Defence Industrial Corridors in India.
8. We also hope that today’s interaction would encourage the Swiss Defence Industry to look at India as a worthy partner in technology transfer, joint production and possible investments in India by future collaborations with the our Defence Industry.
9. The Indian Defence Production Sector is at the cusp of a revolution. Indian Government has identified Defence and Aerospace sectors as focus areas for a Self-Reliant India, with a formidable push on the establishment of indigenous manufacturing infrastructure supported by a requisite R&D ecosystem.
10. Let me talk in numbers first. In our federal Budget for 2024-25, the Defence Industry has been allocated 75 bn USD. The Capital Allocations pertaining to modernisation and infrastructure development of the Defence Services has been increased to 20 bn USD.
11. A target has been set of achieve a turnover of 25 bn USD in the Aerospace and Defence manufacturing by 2025, which includes exports of about 4 bn USD. Till April 2023, a total of 637 Industrial Licences have been issued to more than 400 companies operating in the Defence Sector.
12. To support the domestic defence industry, the Govt aims to ensure transparency, predictability, and ease of doing business by creating a robust eco-system and supportive policies. De-licencing, de-regulation, export promotion and foreign investment liberalisation are being brought in. Four Positive Indigenisation Lists comprising 411 military items have been promulgated so far. Additionally, to promote export and liberalise foreign investments Foreign Direct Investment in the Defence Sector has been enhanced up to 74% through the Automatic Route and 100% by Government Route.
13. The government has also announced two dedicated Defence Industrial Corridors in the States of Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh to act as clusters of defence manufacturing that leverage existing infrastructure, and human capital. Further, to enable innovation within Defence & Aerospace eco-system there are supportive government schemes such as iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence) and DTIS (Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme).
14. The Government of India has opened up the defence industry to the private sector to provide impetus to indigenous manufacturing. A quarter of the defence R&D budget has been earmarked for private industry and start-ups which will pave the way for innovation of new defence technologies in India.
15. The current value of defence production is approximately 13 billion USD. Defence exports are at 3 Bn USD. India is now exporting to 85 countries through collaborative efforts.
16. Friends, In view of the sterling capabilities and capacities of the Swiss Defence Industry, the Indian Defence Industry seeks to partner and collaborate with the Swiss Defence Industry to gain from their high standards of precision, engineering, quality of production and technological knowhow.
17. At the same time, our defence industry also desires to participate in the supply chain of the Swiss Defence Industry and add value to the ecosystem, thus contributing to supply chain resilience.
18. India and Switzerland can build a symbiotic relationship based on shared goals and complementarities of strength, namely skilled workforce and competitive costs from India and high technologies and investments from Switzerland.
19. Our today’s seminar hopefully would generate interest in our two sides to forge new partnerships and greater Swiss participation in the strengthening of our defence production sector and augmentation of our defence capabilities.
20. I thank you and wish you all a pleasant day.
