It is a big day for Odisha. Not only Odisha as a state but its industries, start-ups, entrepreneurs and economy will get a major boost after the news. As per the latest reports, an Odisha based company has signed a whooping and prestigious deal of supply expendable aerial targets to the Army and Air Force under the scheme of Make in India. This is by far the first project that is sanctioned under the defence sector of the Make In India Scheme.
“It is the first contract under Make II. Efforts are being made to drive industry-led research and development in the defence sector,” said Sanjay Jaju, additional secretary-defence production, Ministry of Defence. The contract has been signed with Gopalpur, Odisha-based company Anadrone Systems Private Ltd.
While the valuation of the contract is 96 Crore which is by bar very low as compared to the defence deals are concerned, the Odisha company pitching its product against defence giant Larsen and Toubro. The Shikra MEAT system being manufactured by the company is a localised version of the Banshee Jet 40 system that has earlier been imported by the armed forces.
“The Shikra target solution was the only system able to demonstrate its ability to meet or exceed all of the required operational and performance requirements of the Indian Army and Anadrone was selected as a single-source vendor,” an Anadrone executive said, adding that at least 50% of the product supplied would have indigenous content.
