Top Army Commander Urges More MSMEs From Bengal To Work In Defence Sector

Lieutenant General Ram Chander Tiwari, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) of the Eastern Command of the Army, urged more participation from local Microm Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) from West Bengal in indigenous defence production. Lt Gen Tiwari was speaking at East Tech, a two-day-long defence tech exhibition, organised by the Indian Army's Eastern Command.

The exhibition is being organised in partnership with the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM), to provide a platform to allow participants to showcase their products and homegrown solutions to senior officers from the Eastern Command and other government stakeholders. It is also an effort to ensure a larger focus on the Make In India programme, especially concerning defence procurement.

Lieutenant General Tiwari said, "Today, we have over 140 defence industry representatives gathered here to display their capabilities in different fields of defence manufacturing. As the minister mentioned, the state of West Bengal has the highest number of MSMEs, growing every year. So, I would like to urge the minister to ensure that a large number of them also work in the field of defence and as the President of SIDM mentioned, it would be a great pleasure to see in the next East Tech, a larger participation from local firms."

"The unique geo-strategic location and significance of the area of responsibility of Eastern Command coupled with very distinct terrain, weather and operational challenges, directly dictate the military capabilities required. We also have to be cognizant of new threats and challenges that are emerging with each passing day and hence look towards the defence industry to provide us with the required battlefield equalisers," Lt Gen Tiwari said to further the possibility of more homegrown firms fulfilling the needs of defence procurements.

Highlighting the importance of the changing facing of conflicts, Lt Gen Tiwari said, "Drone warfare as you are aware, in all its manifestations has proved to be a major disruptor on the present day battlefield and brings in the X factor upsetting all traditional theories of warfighting. We are looking at augmenting our units and formations with potent, state-of-the-art drones, in armed as well as surveillance roles. We would like to believe that our defence industry partners, working in this space can provide us robust interference-proof drones that can operate in high altitudes and contested environments the armed forces are operating in.

"Equally important and in light of increasing potent capabilities available in this domain, militaries the world over in general and our neighbourhood in particular, having an effective counter-drone grid is of utmost importance," Lt Gen Tiwari said pointing to the importance of drone warfare in the areas the Eastern Command operates in.