Army's regional tech node will help local entrepreneurs: Minister

Bengaluru: The regional technology node (RTN) of the army design bureau in Bengaluru would help entrepreneurs grow and create more jobs in Karnataka, said the State Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Monday.

He was speaking at the launch of the RTN through which, he said, the bureau would leverage the location of the army service corps centre and college to interface with trade, industry, and academia focusing on new and groundbreaking innovations for advancements in technology that would benefit the army.

Karnataka is a preferred hub for investors across all sectors. Since HAL started in Bengaluru long ago, the State became a pioneer in the field of aviation and aerospace, Sudhakar said. He pointed out that Karnataka is the first state to introduce an aerospace and defense policy and has taken the lead in the field.

“A total of 25 per cent of the aerospace manufacturing industries in the country is in Karnataka, and the State dominates in the field. About 67 per cent of the helicopters and planes supplied to the defence is being manufactured in the State,” Sudhakar told the gathering.

According to Sudhakar, Aerospace and Defence Policy 2022-2027 introduced by the Karnataka government would provide indigenous production in the defence sector a boost to help the nation become self-reliant.

The Minister assured the top Army officers including Vice-Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen B S Raju who were present there that the State government would provide full cooperation to any programme and project of the army. In his address, Lt Gen B S Raju said the Indian Army is poised for indigenous modernisation and it has recognised the importance of the private sector in defence manufacturing.

"Indian Army has recognised the importance of the private sector in defence manufacturing. We want participation from the private sector," Lt Gen Raju said. He said 25 per cent of the defence R&D budget is meant to go for local industry.

"We will be transparent in our dealings. We will provide you the products and their required number to you to produce along with the deadline," he said. "We shall give you ample opportunity to grow," Lt Gen Raju told the industry.

According to him, the government has decided not to import 400 products and that they should be manufactured locally. "The Indian Army is poised for modernisation in the next 10 years. When I say modernisation, I mean indigenous modernisation," he said.

RTN-B will leverage the location of ASC Centre and College in Bengaluru to build an interface with trade, industry and academia with specific focus on IT, to coordinate advancements in technology for overall benefit of Indian Army on behalf of ADB and HQ ARTRAC (Army Training Command), a defence statement had said earlier.

"ADB is one of India's milestone projects under the Indian Army's Make-in-India initiative in the defence sector," it said. The role of the ADB, established in 2016, is to conduct technology scans, identify technologies for acquisition and development, and facilitate R&D efforts with industry, academia, Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The intention is to provide inputs and enable them to understand user requirements while initiating design and development cases with aim to promote indigenisation. To further exploit the success of this model, it was visualised to have similar formal structures at regional level to further extend the outreach and enhance assimilation of technology in the Indian Army, it was stated.

Regional Technology Node – Pune (RTN-P) was the first regional level node set up under ADB to act as an interface with the industry in Maharashtra region. One of the major initiatives undertaken by the ADB is the publication of Compendiums of 'Problem Definition Statements' that identified the core issues of concern for the Indian Army