The biennial edition of Defence Expo India-2020 will be held for the first time in Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow from February 5 to 8 next year as the UP government has signed an MoU with Defence Ministry in New Delhi during the apex committee meeting.

The mega event will be held in Sector 15 of Vrindavan Yojana in Lucknow and Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Awasthi has been made the nodal officer for the Expo.

“The Expo is expected to attract defence manufacturing companies to set up units in the defence industrial corridor of UP,” an official said on Monday.

The apex committee meeting of Defence Expo was held in New Delhi and it was attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. 

Singh, who is MP from Lucknow, has shown keen interest in holding the Defence Expo in the state capital.

The Expo will give an excellent opportunity for Indian defence industry to showcase its capabilities and promote export potential. 

The theme of DefExpo India-2020 will be ‘India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub’ and the focus will be on ‘Digital Transformation of Defence’.

This would not only facilitate Business-to-Business (B2B) interaction with senior foreign delegations but also Government-to-Government (G2G) meetings and signing of memorandums of understanding (MoUs).

Awasthi said that the exhibition would also highlight the emergence of UP as an attractive destination for investment in defence sector and act as a platform for alliances and joint ventures in the defence industry.

With four units of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited at Lucknow, Kanpur, Korwa (Amethi) and Naini (Prayagraj), nine ordnance factory units, including Kanpur, Korwa, Shahjahanpur, Firozabad, and one unit of Bharat Electronics Limited at Ghaziabad, UP has a strong defence industrial infrastructure.

One of the two defence industrial corridors (DICs) has been sanctioned to UP which would encourage defence micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), including Indian defence industry, and promote defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs). 

The other DIC is proposed in Tamil Nadu.

The Defence Expo will provide an opportunity to major foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to collaborate with Indian defence industry and help promote ‘Make in India’ initiative.