As the 12th edition of Aero India 2019, a biannual plane carnival kick-started at the Yalahanka Air base at the outskirts of Bengaluru on Wednesday, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lauded the achievements of Modi Government in defence sector ahead of general elections just a few months away.
Speaking at the inauguration of 12th edition of Aero India she said, “Some of the major achievements of Public and Private defence industry, I want to put before you include 155 MM 52 caliber self-propelled howitzer guns, advanced towed artillery guns, high altitude UAVs, commissioning of indigenous scorpene INS Kalvari, development of two indigenous ATGMs, upgradation of air defence guns L 70, LCA Tejas 2, integrated air command control system, Akash missile system and so on.” She also said with focused defence policy the public and private defence industry have been able to achieve major milestones in the defence and aerospace segment.
As a mark of tribute to Wing Commander Sahil Gandhi who was killed in a mid-air clash of two Hawk fighters of team Surya Kiran on Tuesday.
“There are now more than 424 companies which have obtained the license for defence production. This number has almost doubled over the last four years,” she added. She said on Foreign direct Investment”(FDI ) ) upto 49 per cent were allowed through automatic route and above 49 per cent we go through the Government route. But a significant FDI growth in defence and aerospace sector have been witnessed. During 2014-18, six companies in defence and aerospace sector obtained government approval for FDI of Rs 237 crore while FDI of Rs 200 crore has been received through the automatic route.