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‘Kerala can be a hub for the defence-industry complex’

KOCHI: Kerala, blessed with knowledge-intensive manpower, availability of raw materials, and presence of financial institutions and resources, should emerge as an aerospace and defence industry hub, said S. Anantha Narayanan, director, Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), here.

He was speaking at Kerala’s first Defence Industry Symposium organised here on Thursday and Friday under the aegis of Kerala State Industries Department, Kerala State Small Industries Association, and Confederation of Indian Industry.

With ISRO, three international airports, NPOL under Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as a design agency, and Navy as the ultimate user, the case for a defence industry is strong in the State.

Mr. Narayanan said that both defence and aerospace industry are concentrated in select parts of the country for historic reasons. Aerospace industry has grown around Bangalore while defence industries are located in places like Mumbai, Hyderabad and Vishakapattanam.

“With the business potential that is available, there is no reason other areas should not be identified and groomed so that complete potential can be realised in this sector,” he said. The defence and aerospace hub will cater to the large requirements of Indian space and defence research, and “will eventually help in fostering growth of large number of private ancillary industries to produce world-class systems which can be exported to other countries,” he added.

Mr. Narayanan called for a cluster approach to development of aerospace and defence industry. In order to capitalise on the huge market opened up by the Offset policy of the Union Government, major industries in the State should create an industry consortium.

“Each such consortium should cater for specialisations like missiles, aircraft, land systems, sonar, radars, and mission control software,” he suggested.

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