New Delhi: The government has initiated several steps to boost collaboration under Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, said a top official at a recently-held webinar with Israel and other countries.
Speaking at the “Global Outreach Webinars and Expo” organised by the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) in conjunction with Department of Defence Production (DDP) of the Defence Ministry and trade body Confederation of Indian Industry (CCI), Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar stressed upon the initiative to enhance Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) through automatic routes from 49 per cent to 74 per cent which can enable a higher controlling stake for Israeli companies looking to invest in India.
”We are confident that our partnership with Israel will, especially, be championed by the Industries from both sides and we look forward to their growing partnership in the future,” he said.
SIDM, in partnership with the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Confederation of Indian Industry, is organising a series of ‘Global Outreach Webinars & Expo’ in the period of September 24 – November 15, 2020 (Exhibition will extend till December 2020), to promote defence exports and global
partnership for Indian Defence Industry.
The series will cover 15 countries in the first phase: Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Seychelles, South Africa, Thailand, UAE, UK, US and Uzbekistan.
The first webinar of the series focussed on Israel and was organised in collaboration with SIBAT, the International Cooperation Directorate of the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMoD).
In his opening remarks, Mr Jayant D Patil, President, SIDM highlighted that CII mounted the first Defence Industry delegation to Tel Aviv in 2002. “From the visit, multiple things have happened which have matured our defence Industrial ties,” he said. He conveyed that more than 100 Exhibitors, from both the Indian and Israeli Industry, have set up Virtual Stalls to identify and collaborate for future opportunities as part the Outreach
Series.
Sanjeev Singla, Ambassador of India to Israel, highlighted that Israeli defence companies have major linkages with India and are very keen to expand these linkages through special product development and manufacturing with a vision of using India as a hub for its exports to other countries. He dwelt upon India and Israel’s
strategic partnership and said that this relationship has been in a qualitatively different trajectory ever since the historic visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2017 and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018.
In his address Dr Ron Malka, Ambassador of Israel to India, said, “The vision of Make in India, With India, For India and For the world feeds very well with Israeli defence companies, we are looking at genuine friends like India to develop and manufacture equipment together.” He said an MoU was signed with India recently to foster Innovation between the Industries from both sides.
“We are trying to explore more formulas, avenues and new ways of collaboration,” he said.
