DRDO also transferred technology for manufacturing advance bulletproof vests

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated a two-day ‘Defence Industry Development Meet’ organised by the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, in Chennai in January 2018, to encourage and facilitate participation of private industries especially Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Defence manufacturing.

The objective of the meet was to forge new partnerships with private industry with the aim of achieving self-reliance in defence production under the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Government. The meet focused on indigenization, import substitution and technology infusion.

The defence-industry interface endorsed 18 technology transfers from the DRDO to private enterprises. Many MSMEs were provided technical know how on manufacturing various defence equipment under the “Make in India” program. In all DRDO transferred technology for manufacturing 35-metre mountain footbridge; technology for making propellant for low thrust motor and high thrust motor of BrahMos; and technology for making advance bulletproof vest. Apart from that there was exchange of interest (EOI) between Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), a premier naval research laboratory of DRDO, and Goa Shipyard Ltd for manufacturing of indigenous ship based on DRDO technologies.

The event will provide private firms/companies, especially vendors from Tamil Nadu region an overview of the existing defence procurement policy, indigenization and outsourcing procedures of DPSUs/OFB and update them on the recent Government policy initiatives to promote indigenization and outsourcing and the opportunities thereon.

More than 1,000 MSMEs from Chennai, Trichy, Coimbatore, Maharashtra and other places participated in the meet.

The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, senior officials from Ministry of Defence, State Government, Services, Chairman OFB, CMDs of DPSUs, senior executives of DPSUs/OFB and private industries were present at the inaugural function.

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