The Second Edition of Coimbatore Defence Conclave (CDC) 2023 held at Kumaraguru Institutions:
The second edition of “COIMBATORE DEFENCE CONCLAVE (CDC)” is scheduled at Kumaraguru Campus, Coimbatore on 27th July 2023. This event is coinciding with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s Memorial Day and the 75th anniversary of the Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI). Through this event, Kumaraguru Institutions aims at bring together MSMEs and key people from the Armed Forces so that they can interact and get to know about the Defence requirements, procurement policies, quality standards and other prerequisites to register themselves as Vendors with the Defence Organizations. Scientists from DRDO, officials from Armed Forces, Government organizations and Industries would address and share the opportunities that are available for MSMEs.
Shri Shankar Vanavarayar, Joint Correspondent, Kumaraguru Institutions presided over that This conclave is relevant for multiple reasons. Coimbatore is known for textile machinery, pumps and other precision industry. But very soon Coimbatore which is technologically abled will be moving in to defence space.
Coimbatore has multiple things that defence ecosystem needs. Temperate weather, cosmopolitan culture and the technological mindset of people makes this conclave in its second edition very relevant. There is barrier to entry due to lack of knowledge, lack of expertise, lack of exposure and experience. This conclave primarily tries to bridge that gap.
The economy needs our industries to produce defence equipment because a huge percent of our revenue is spent on defence equipment as we buy it from around the world. There is so much of value addition possible as we cannot produce the best of it that we import.
Inaugural Address by Air Marshal M Mathewson, Former Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (IDF) Ministry of Defence: Design and development of any defence product especially in the aviation sector needs to meet high quality and stringent requirement in terms of standards, testing and validation. The defence ecosystem can develop when you encourage private sector to come in small areas like in western countries. That process didn’t start in the 1950’s right till 1990 in India because of which the drive for innovation and competition went away.
Still, 89 percent of the defence manufacturing contract of the country goes to the public sector undertaking companies. This needs to be changed. We have vibrant ecosystem for other sector of the industry but not in defence. The process needs to be driven aggressively and industry needs to be aware on the available opportunities. Public sector must shed the infrastructure they have and share it to private sector in a risk sharing format.
Defence market is dominated by majors from countries like US, Russia, UK, France, Israel and China. Indian companies can penetrate into the market by ensuring cost competitiveness, quality control, production efficiency on which we need to work.
Mr. N. Ramachandran, President, Aerospace Industry Development Association of Tamil Nadu (AIDAT) gave special address said “Coimbatore is going to be the leader of the Tamil Nadu Defence Corridor. Technology is going to be a big challenge for the MSMEs. He asked MSMEs not to have the defence business as the only business but opportunities are going to be huge in the coming years”.
Dr D Saravanan, Principal, Kumaraguru College of Technology (KCT) Coimbatore stated that “As a commitment to defence development, we started M Tech in Defence Technology last year along with centre for defence product development. Recently we have inducted 12 experts from defence services and defence research. This defence conclave will be a milestone and will serve the purpose of many of the MSMEs and defence requirements. The Coimbatore Defence Conclave should move to the next level to the state and then national level”.
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