Bangalore , February 9 : India, the world’s largest democracy and the fastest growing global economy is poised to play a strategic role amongst community of nations. Its growing economic, social and geo-political role makes it incumbent upon the country to build commensurate security capability.
Aiming to address this need, Parakram is developing a world-class industrial corridor as a private sector enterprise housing capability to design, develop and support Defence, Aerospace and Home Land Security systems and solutions.
This was announced at a press conference here by the Directors- Mr. S. Krishna Kumar, IAS (Retd.), Former Minister of State for Defence, Dr. Prem Chand, Former Commodore in the Indian Navy and Additional Director General in the Ministry of Defence, Government of India and Mr. Asif Iqbal, Executive Director of Indo Arab Chamber of Commerce.
The first phase of this industrial corridor would span across the states of Tamil Naidu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry. The investment for the first phase is earmarked at Rs 250 crore and will go up as the project progresses. The land identified includes Bagalur Aerospace Zone (45 acres, extendable to 120 acres) in Bangalore, Chennai – 35 kms before Bangalore Chennai Highway (36 acres extendable to 80 acres) Hyderabad – Khairatabad (100 acres), Cochin – Ernakulam highway (20 acres). Each of these areas fall within 60-km radius of the International airports.
In phase 2 the corridor would be extended to the upcoming Delhi – Mumbai industrial corridor spanning six states — Delhi, Western Uttar Pradesh, Southern Haryana, Eastern Rajasthan, Eastern Gujarat, and Western Maharashtra and other regions of the country.
Speaking at the announcement press conference, Dr. Prem Chand, Former Commodore in the Indian Navy and Additional Director General in the Ministry of Defence, Government of India and Director- Parakram, “The Indian Defence budget at over USD 40 billion is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.3% to exceed USD 75 billion by 2020, making it the 6th largest Defense spender worldwide by 2016. India imports about 70% of its Defence requirements and the efforts are underway to develop indigenous capability to reduce imports to 30%. The eight Defence Public Sector Units and 39 (thirty nine) Ordinance factories produce about 90% of the indigenous requirements and the remaining 10% is produced by the private sector as Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers.
Sharing his views, Mr. S. Krishna Kumar, IAS (Retd.), Former Minister of State for Defence and Director, Parakram, said, “This corridor aims to propel the region into an innovation-led economy, by hosting the most advanced and fully integrated centers for R&D, production of Defence & Aerospace Systems, facilitate innovation and commercialisation by providing advanced infrastructure, equipment and facilities. It would foster & facilitate smart partnerships between the government and private sectors, prepare industry to participate in the global contract bidding, foster collaborations to manufacture products for the local, regional and global market.”
