?Private sector can play key role to meet defence needs?

Minister of state for defence MM Pallam Raju on Friday said there was a need for stronger public-private partnership to meet future security challenges of the country.

Highlighting the huge business potential of the sector Raju said, ?As per available estimates, the cumulative value of the Indian defence market for the next five years would be approximately Rs 1,80,000 crore ($45 billion).?

He was addressing a seminar on ?Defence Offset Policy: Opportunities for Indian IT and Electronics Industry?, organised by defence offset facilitation agency (DOFA), defence ministry and the CII.

?The time is ripe for defence PSUs, private industries, including small scale industries to develop world-class defence technologies. This will also provide opportunities to the IT and electronic industries and help India meet global expectations,? he said.

He emphasised the need of a co-ordiated approach between his ministry, the armed forces and the industry, in order to strengthen defence base of the country.

Explaining the feature of the Defence Offset Policy, additional secretary in the dept of defence production, MoD, PK Rastogi said it was a simple policy that could easily be understood by foreign vendors and the Indian industry.

The policy will make it easy for the ministry to monitor and encourage sound relationship between the foreign and domestic industry.

Making an important observation, Rastogi said India was way behind in hardware and manufacturing of electronic systems and components.

Earlier delivering the theme address joint secretarty (exports) and chairperson of defence offset facilitation agency Kiran Chadha said the defence offset facilitated interface between the foreign vendors and the local industry.