C-295 aircraft manufacturing plant will provide huge opportunity to MSMEs: PM Modi – SME News

Inaugurating the C-295 aircraft manufacturing plant in Vadodara along with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the new facility will benefit micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country. The Tata-Airbus manufacturing facility at the TATA Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) campus will support local manufacturing of 18,000 aircraft parts, providing tremendous opportunity to MSMEs across India, PM Modi said.

Stressing the importance of skill development and job creation, the Prime Minister said such projects would also create thousands of jobs.

According to information about the new venture, India will receive 56 C-295 aircraft, of which 16 will be delivered directly by Airbus from Spain and the remaining 40 will be manufactured in India by Tata Advanced Systems.

The new facility is India’s first private final assembly line (FAL) for military aircraft, which will include aircraft manufacturing, assembly, testing and qualification, delivery and maintenance.

“Besides the Tatas, leading public sector defense units such as Bharat Electronics Ltd will participate in this program. and Bharat Dynamics Ltd, as well as private MSMEs,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

The foundation stone for the Vadodara assembly line was laid by Prime Minister Modi in October 2022.

He also spoke about the government’s iDEX scheme, which has supported around 1,000 defense startups in the last five to six years. Prime Minister Modi also said that India’s defense exports have increased 30 times over the last decade and the country now exports equipment to over 100 countries.

In March this year, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh launched the Acing Development of Innovative Technologies with iDEX (ADITI) scheme with funding of Rs 750 crore for startups. The scheme focuses on innovation in critical and strategic defense technologies from start-ups through grants of up to Rs 25 crore for research, development and innovation in defense technologies.

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