New Delhi: Leading the way in making India self-reliant in defence MRO manufacturing, Crown Group Defence, one of India's largest independent defence MRO major and a strategic partner to Indian defence forces invites international companies to partner and leverage its facilities and capabilities for setting up an MRO manufacturing base in the country keeping abreast with the 'Make in India' strategy.

"We are open to partnerships with global OEMs through a range of cooperation models such as joint ventures, joint manufacturing, technology licensing, contract manufacturing, and know-how transfer arrangement etc," said Vice Admiral Paras Nath (Retd) AVSM, VSM, Group President, Crown Group Defence.

"The scope of work includes maintenance, modernisation, repair, servicing, design, development, manufacturing technology partnerships with global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) providing defence equipment to Indian Defence Forces (Army, Navy, Air Force) who are seeking an opportunity to establish or expand their supply chains or MRO/manufacturing base in India to help make India "Atmanirbhar" in defence MRO Manufacturing," said Vice Admiral Paras Nath.

The Group President also said, "Our world-class facilities capabilities along with ongoing robust partnerships with some of the major international Defence OEMs for MRO of Indian naval marine and aviation assets has put Crown Group Defence in a strong position to support any foreign company, in setting up their manufacturing/MRO base in India and taking forward the vision under Make in India." "This intensely increases the scope and scale of maintenance, repair and overhaul undertaken in the country and demonstrates both the companies' commitment in helping make India Aatmanirbhar in defence and aerospace," he further added.

With the release of three lists of defence items to be banned for import (positive indigenisation list) govt's objectives of self-reliance in the defence sector, and promoting exports of military equipment, the defence minister Rajnath Singh has made it clear that India's self-reliance in the defence sector does not mean working in isolation from the rest of the world.

It means working in our own country with their (foreign firms) active participation and support. This has opened up a huge opportunity for international OEMs to come set up their base in India.

Crown Group Defence provides support to marine engineering, aerospace engineering, military engineering and weapon systems to the Indian Navy, coast guard, land and aviation forces with pan India presence across 12 cities with MRO facilities in Karwar, Mumbai, Goa, Visakhapatnam and Chennai and satellite offices in Cochin, Port Blair, Kolkata, Andaman Nicobar and corporate offices in Delhi is contributing to India's ever-growing defence aerospace requirements.

"Global OEMs that are looking for organised players to help them maintain service their equipment and provide quality service to their customers in India find it easy to partner with Crown Group because of their world-class MRO facilities workshops spread across pan India and their experience in working with international OEMs. For International OEMs it is much more economical to partner with local players who already have facilities and understand the local business environment," said Vikas Banga, Group's Chief Strategy Officer.

Banga further said, "We are extremely quality conscious, we deliver on time and have received several commendations from both the customers and international OEMs. "The group has three verticals to service the needs of operational readiness of the Indian defence sector through its group companies, which are:1. 'Dynatron Services Private Limited' (DSPL) and 'OSK India Private Limited' (OIPL) for marine engineering2. 'Aviatech Enterprises Private Limited'(AEPL) and 'Zealtek Enterprises Private Limited' (ZEPL) for aerospace and avionics3. 'C1 India Private Limited' for cyber security and online product support.

'Dynatron Services Private Limited' (DSPL) and 'OSK India Private Limited' (OIPL) are one of the only organized fully equipped players that are present across all the coastal cities catering to the MRO servicing of Indian naval ships, aircraft carrier, warships and the submarines at the naval base with their fully-functional state of the art facilities in Karwar, Mumbai, Goa and Chennai.

"Maintaining the defence equipment supplied by foreign OEMs is an expensive and time-consuming affair for the Indian defence sector as these have to be mostly sent overseas for the repairs. Through such partnerships with global OEMs, our aim is to bring the latest MRO manufacturing technologies to India, cut the lead times, and provide product support at the right time at economical prices to the Indian Defence forces to help keep them battle-ready," said Cmde Rakesh Anand (Retd), Head of Marine Division, Crown Group Defence in their commitment to promote Defence RD has tied up with Amrita University for developing Indigenous Defence Technologies under Make in India programme and is in advance talks for collaboration with IITs other reputed universities for various defence projects in the coming days with the objective of meeting the burgeoning skill needs of India's fast-growing defence sector," Commander Rakesh Anand further added.

Appreciation of its outstanding MRO services and on-time delivery of critical projects has helped the group secure a good deal of MRO contracts from the Indian Navy, coast guard, land and aviation forces.

Crown Group Defence, the strategic partner to Indian defence forces supporting the "Atmanirbhar Bharat" initiative will showcase its indigenously developed technology innovations in manufacturing, maintenance, modernisation, repair and servicing for both Defence Civil at The INMEX SMM India Expo from June 1 to June 3, 2022, at Jio World Convention Centre, BKC, Mumbai.