The Indian Defence industry is going through a rapid change where the nation is not just focusing on expansion of Defence market but also is looking at arenas to strengthen indigenous manufacturing under ‘Make in India’ scheme, a vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister. Furthermore, with Indian Armed Forces being the 2nd largest armed forces in the world, the country spends a substantial amount on Defence & Aerospace equipment. It is one of the largest importers of arms with a share of 9.5% of world import between 2014-18.The Union Budget 2020-21 has also allocated around $47.47 Bn (excluding Defence pension) for Defence, out of which 1/3rd is dedicatedly allocated for capital expenditure.

Where on one hand the nation is welcoming foreign players to enter the Indian Defence market through opening up FDI, as they provide for more than 50% of Defence equipment procured, it is also focusing on development of Indian OEMs by encouraging collaborations like joint ventures, partnerships, offsets etc. with an aim to decrease foreign dependency.

With the above objective, it was decided that two Defence Industrial Corridors would be developed, in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and was announced during the Union Budget of 2018-19

• 
  Indigenization
• 
  Self-Reliance
• Generation of Employment

Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UP DIC) is an aspirational project that intends to reduce foreign dependency of Indian Aerospace & Defence Sector. It took off to an encouraging start with the announcement of investments worth over Rs. 3700 crores in Defence production at the Meet organized at Aligarh on 11Aug2018.

The Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) was made the nodal agency to execute this project in conjunction with various other state agencies.

Planned across 6 nodes namely – Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi, Agra Aligarh, Chitrakoot, which spreads across Central, East, West region of Uttar Pradesh and along the Golden Quadrilateral connecting Delhi – Kolkata supported by networks of expressways.

This Corridor aims to bring up the state as one of the largest & advanced Defence manufacturing hubs and put it on the world map.

22 MoUs were signed during the DefExpo 2020 in Lucknow between UPEIDA and private players, startups, industry giants & institutional organisations in presence of Hon'ble CM & Hon'ble RM. 24 more MoUs were signed post DefExpo taking a total to 46. Further, 16 MoUs were signed during Aero India 2021 and 6 more MoUs after Aero India 2021 making the grand total reach 68.

Ordnance Factories, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and BrahMos Aerospace are the major giants which have planned investments in the state to further strengthen Defence manufacturing.

Key Highlights

• MoU signed with Indian Navy and Indian Air Force to facilitate integration of MSMEs and Start-Ups directly with the end user.
• Creation of Defence Testing Infrastructure at the Nodes initiated by MoD and Common Facility Centre by state
• Centers of Excellence (CoE) in collaboration with IIT Kanpur and IIT BHU
• Next Generation (Brahmos-NG) Missile Project planned by BrahMos Aerospace in Lucknow Node
• Missile Unit being set up by Bharat Dynamics Limited at Jhansi Node