Ease of doing business for MSMEs: More than 125 MSME suppliers in the country have been identified by a consortium of Tata companies including Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) that will make 40 C-295 transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force along with the European defence major Airbus. The announcement was made by Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar at a press conference on Thursday.
The defence ministry said this will act as a catalyst in employment generation in the aerospace ecosystem of the country and is expected to generate 600 highly skilled jobs directly, over 3,000 indirect jobs and an additional 3,000 medium skill employment opportunities with more than 42.5 lakh man hours of work within the aerospace and defence sector of India.
The foundation stone for the manufacturing facility, which aims to boost the government’s atmanirbhar initiative, will be laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Vadodara, Gujarat on October 30, 2022.
For the uninitiated, the Cabinet Committee in September last year approved the procurement of 56 C-295MW transport aircraft from the Airbus Defence and Space division of Airbus. Out of 56 aircraft, 16 will be delivered in flyaway condition between September 2023 and August 2025 and 40 will be manufactured in India, said Kumar. The first aircraft is expected to be manufactured by September 2026. The entire project will cost Rs 21,935 crore.
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The ministry said the manufacturing of over 13,400 detail parts, 4,600 sub-assemblies and all the seven major component assemblies will be undertaken in India, along with tools, jigs and testers in India.
Out of around 12,000 MSMEs operating in the defence sector, nearly 700 were registered directly with the Indian Air Force, Air Vice Marshall PS Sarin had said at an event organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in March this year. MSME vendors scattered across the country supplying to the Defence Public Sector Units (DPSUs) stood at 7,591 in FY18, 8,643 in FY19 and 10,506 till Q2 FY20. As a result, the procurement value by DPSUs from MSMEs had increased from Rs 4842.92 crore in FY19 to Rs 5463.82 crore in FY21, according to government data.