Hyderabad : The Indian School of Business (ISB) and the College of Defence Management (CDM) will be organising the first ever joint Seminar on ‘Building Capability through Self Reliance in Defence Production’ on January 7-8, 2011.

While the market for defence equipment in India expected to grow steadily for the next 25 years as a result of the Government’s major modernisation drive, it also provides new opportunities for employment and business both for the public and private sectors.

Making the announcement, Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, ISB said, “This conference will bring together key senior policy and decision makers, industry leaders and experts from academia to identify the business potential in the Indian defence markets and explore opportunities that will benefit both the MNC’s and the SME’s alike.”

A recent Deloitte-CII study points out that 70 per cent of the current defence procurement comes from foreign sources while Indian companies supply only 30 per cent, the bulk of which are components and sub-assemblies to state-owned companies. With the first ever Defence Production Policy to be unveiled in January 2011, along with a significantly revised Defence Procurement Policy there are expectations that indigenous production of defence equipment will be ramped up to a large extent. The conference will examine the opportunities that can be afforded to the Indian Industry as a result of the proposed changes in the Defence Offset and Production Policy. Defence equipment manufacturers across the country are expected to attend this conference.

Admiral Vivek S Batra, AVSM, Commandant, College of Defence Management, co – hosts of the Seminar said “Self reliance and Defence Production is strongly linked to national security. Synergy between the Indian Industry (public and private) policy makers and the users will go a long way in achieving this aim.”

The conference has attracted participation from Government, PSUs, MNCs and SME players. Prominent speakers include Shri Shekhar Dutt, Governor of Chhattisgarh, Shri M M Pallam Raju, Raksha Rajya Mantri, Heads of PSUs like HAL, BEL, Bharat Forge and so on.

This conference will provide policy makers, practitioners – personnel from Armed Forces, R&D and the Industry a common platform to discuss, debate and recommend measures to streamline India’s march towards self reliance.