Army Expo brings together Coimbatore industry, academia, and the Defence forces
The Hindu
Army Expo in Coimbatore has a display of drills, bands, display of equipment and has brought together the MSMEs, educational institutions, and the Defence forces
Display of arms and equipment used by the Army, drills by soldiers, band performance in the open theatre, and talks on how MSMEs can supply to the Defence forces marked the first day of Army Expo (Southern Star Army Academia and Industry Interface) organised at the CODISSIA Trade Fair Complex in Coimbatore city on May 28, 2024.
The two-day exhibition has the MSMEs of Coimbatore displaying their engineering capabilities and the Army exhibiting its requirements.
Defence exports from the country crossed ₹21,000 crores in 2023-2024, and are expected to touch ₹50,000 crores by 2028-2029, said G. Satheesh Reddy, former Chairman of DRDO and president of the Aeronautical Society of India.
“Ideas (of the Defence startups) should be globally competitive,” he said. In a couple of years there will not be a Defence system without artificial intelligence. Cyber security is also very important now. Coimbatore has a major role to play in this growth of the Defence sector, he added.
“This event (Army Expo) is basically to get the Army, the industry and the academia together to build an ecosystem in south India,” said Lieutenant General Karanbir Singh Brar, General Officer Commanding, Dakshin Bharat Area. The DRDO laboratories, Defence public sector undertakings, startups, the MSMEs and some of the top educational institutions are located in south India.
“There is enough capability. We need to get the system going,” he said. Under the Make In India, the users (Defence forces) explain their requirements to the industry and mentor them so that the product developers reach a stage where the product can be put on field. Technology is impacting wars with communications, drones, machine learning and artificial intelligence, he added.
Similar events were held in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Thiruvananthapuram. “This can become an yearly event,” he added. According to Mr. Brar, Coimbatore should become a centre of excellence for the Defence Make in India.
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