The Ministry of Defence is preparing an initiative to strengthen the country's defence industrial base by establishing seven specialised manufacturing clusters across the country. This framework, which is distinct from the defence industrial corridors located in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, aims to integrate states, union territories, industry and academia into a broader architecture for defence production. This is based on the concept of whole of the nation approach. Each of these clusters will focus on a specific aspect of the defence value chain. This will range from testing and certification to exports, skill development, innovation and creation of infrastructure. The Ministry of Defence has already held multiple rounds of consultations, chaired by Defence Production Secretary Sanjeev Kumar, with stakeholders including state governments, defence PSUs, IITs and various centres of excellence. States and institutions have also been tasked with preparing vision documents and implementation roadmaps. This would mean identifying infrastructure needs, regulatory bottlenecks and sector-specific challenges. The initiative is to be designed in a manner as to generate both direct value addition and broader indirect economic benefits. (ICE NEW DELHI)

Fonte notizia: Times of India