Consolidating Make In India: Second Defence Innovation Hub To Come Up In Nashik, Announces MoS Subhash Bhamre

India’s second defence innovation hub will come up in Maharashtra’s Nashik as per Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre, Press Trust of India reports.

This announcement was made during a defence industry stakeholder meeting held at Ojhar on Thursday (17 January). The meeting was attended by Air Marshal VR Chaudhari, HAL’s Chairman cum Managing Director R Madhavan, Defence Production Secretary Ajay Kumar and Maharashtra Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan.

Under the proposed hub in Nashik, the government hopes to help local industries and add to its “Make In India” push in the defence sector.

The Central government has targeted annual arms exports worth Rs 35,000 crore under this plan and wishes to make India one of the world’s top defence manufacturers.

Currently, India is getting an innovation hub in Coimbatore and Tamil Nadu is also all set to get a defence corridor in Trichy with an array of new defence products and investments.

Defence ministry had last year released Rs 20 crore as initial funding to the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (Codissia) which will identify micro and small units as well as startups ready to manufacture components for defence equipment.