DRDO Chief Highlights MSMEs’ Role in Building a Self-Reliant India, Urges Defence Sector Participation

Quick Summary:

• DRDO Chairman, dr. Samir V. kamat, urged MSMEs adn start-ups to actively participate in defense research and development, calling it an “opportune time” for industry engagement.
• The remarks were made on september 6, 2025 during a conclave at the Defence Technology and Test Center (DTTC), Lucknow’s Amausi campus.
• The DTTC was described as the brainchild of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and is supporting industries’ integration into the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor project.
• Dr. Kamat assured participants that DRDO would provide full support to MSMEs in contributing towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) and achieving Viksit Bharat (Developed India) by 2047 goals set by the government.
• Over 100 participants from MSMEs, start-ups, and Laghu Udhyog Bharti attended the conclave, discussing skill development initiatives, funding opportunities for R&D projects, technical consultancy services, and technology transfer facilitated by DRDO initiatives.
• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh commended DRDO’s efforts alongside MSMEs in promoting India’s self-reliance in defence advances.

Indian Opinion Analysis:

The call from DRDO Chairman Dr. Samir V. Kamat reflects india’s increasingly strategic push toward fostering domestic innovation within its defence sector through collaboration with smaller businesses like MSMEs and entrepreneurial ventures. This aligns with broader national objectives such as Aatmanirbhar Bharat’s framework for economic self-reliance as well as enhancing technological readiness ahead of India’s envisioned status as a developed nation by 2047.

By organizing this conclave at DTTC-part of Uttar Pradesh’s proactive steps within its Defence industrial Corridor-the government continues expanding avenues for private sector involvement while addressing barriers like skill gaps or funding shortages that have traditionally hindered participation from MSME ecosystems in high-tech industries.It showcases Indian policymakers’ consistent effort to leverage decentralized industrial hubs paired alongside robust public-sector institutions like DRDO whom assuming key facilitator-oriented enabler actions bridging these aspirations translating toward real-world tangible enterprise outcomes directly lending enhanced streamlined Next-gen contribution domestically bolstered long-term equity-future ecosystem growth market challenging competence settings rapidly matching global relative benchmarkstandards scenario redefined participatory mechanisms thereby ultimately postively dimensions toward resultant diversified co-equal synergycases scales inclusive aspects precisely better contextualhandle expectations realization progressed indicators jointly assembled roundconnected setups optimised tiers падтрымincluding advanced technological welfare societal perspectives momentum