Reliance Infrastructure Ltd’s wholly owned subsidiary, Reliance Defence Ltd,has received 16 Industrial Licenses for manufacture of a wide array of high technology equipment ranging from Small Arms, Heavy Weapons, Armoured Vehicles, Ammunition, Explosives, Electronic Warfare Systems, Missiles, UAVs and Directed Energy Weapon Systems, Laser Systems for target destruction and C4I Systems for all Defence Platforms.
With these 16 licenses, Reliance Defence now has 27 licences in hand and it will address the entire gamut of defence equipment manufacturing. Electronics play a major role in manufcaturing of any defence equipment. The Indian government has categoricallt said that it will encourage defence manufacturing in the country. Earlier India used to import most of the defence products that were being used.
These defence licences will enable Reliance Defence to address the domestic market which is worth Rs 30,000 crore. Through the ‘Make in India’ initiative these defence projects will address operational requirements of Indian defence forces.
The key programmes in these segments have budgetary allocation in excess of Rs 50,000 crore. The Indian Army will spend an additional Rs 50,000 crore over next 10 to 15 years on different combat vehicles.
The oportunity that India provides in defence manufacturing is huge and a lot of global players are showing keen interest to manufacture defence equipments in the country.
By Atanu Kumar Das
