Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that his government's "stable, predictable, and futuristic" policies have resulted in India becoming a significant international manufacturing base.
The PM was addressing a gathering of industrialists and industry representatives in Vadodara as he laid the foundation stone of the Tata-Airbus C295 plant, India’s first transport aircraft manufacturing unit for the IAF.
“Now India is working with a new mindset and work culture,” the PM remarked. “India is making fighter jets, tanks, submarines, medicines, vaccines, electronic gadgets, mobile phones and cars that are popular in many countries.”
He added that moving forward with the mantra of ‘Make in India, Make for the Globe’, the country is now becoming a major manufacturer of transport aircraft in the world.
The Tata Group will manufacture 40 C295 tactical transport aircraft at the Vadodara facility in cooperation with European aerospace major Airbus following a £2.19 billion agreement in September last year. India sealed the deal with Airbus Defence and Space to procure 56 of the aircraft to replace IAF’s ageing Avro-748 planes that entered service in the early 1960s.
PM Modi said “It is for the first time that such a big investment is being made in the Indian defence sector. The transport aircraft manufactured here will not only strengthen the armed forces but will also help develop a new ecosystem of aircraft manufacturing.”
The defence and aerospace sectors are going to be the crucial pillars of the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ push in the coming years. He said “We aim to scale our defence manufacturing beyond US $25 billion by 2025. Our defence exports will also exceed US $5 billion.”
