Chennai is all set to host the country’s flagship defence exhibition, DefExpo 2018,  from April 11 to 14 in a bid attract more Indian players into the defence manufacturing as well as to create ground for future exports. Speaking at the curtain raiser press conference here on Sunday, Ajay Kumar, secretary, defence production, ministry of defence, said the main objective of the expo is to showcase the country’s defence manufacturing capabilities. “We want to show case India as emerging hub for manufacturing as the country attained significant milestones in defence manufacturing. We also need to create opportunity for exports from India,” said Kumar. He said that a total of 701 exhibitors are expected to participate in the expo out of which  539 are Indian firms and 163 international companies. While this is the highest ever participation by Indian firms, there is a 10% drop in terms of international participation. When querried about this, Kumar said that the major international firms are indeed participating in the exhibition. Giving statistics about the  event, he said around 7% of the space has been allocated for Indian exhibitors. The total area for the exhibition is 2,90,000 sq ft, which is the largest among all exhibitions so far. Around 20% of the space is reserved for MSME. This year, Indian participation include majors like Tata, L&T, Kalyani, Bharat Forge, Mahindra, MKU, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), Bharat Electronics (BEL), Bharat Dynamics (BDL), Bharat Earth Movers (BEML), Mazagon Dock (MDL), Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE), Goa Shipyard (GSL), Hindustan Shipyard (HSL), Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (MIDHANI), ordnance factories, and many others. Major international companies, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing (USA), Saab (Sweden), Airbus, Rafael (France), Rosonboron Exports, United Shipbuilding (Russia), BAE Systems (UK), Sibat (Israel), Wartsila (Finland), Rhode and Schwarz (Germany) are among the many others who will be participating in the event.