UP to promote startups in defence, aerospace sector

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Jan 15, 2021

The Uttar Pradesh government will promote startups in the state defence and aerospace manufacturing sector for boosting industrialisation and job creation.

The Yogi Adityanath government has cleared the proposal of providing sops to the startups and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in the growing sector, which were hitherto applicable to only big units.

This has been done by amending the UP Defence and Aerospace Manufacturing Employment Promotion Policy 2018 to give a major leg-up to the startups and MSMEs in this arena.

The state cabinet decision is aimed at bringing parity between the industrial units and catalysing the UP Defence Corridor, which is expected to attract investments to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore in the coming years.

Now, the startups and MSMEs will be eligible for land allotment to set up their units for the manufacturing and supply of hardware used in the defence and aerospace industry.

Meanwhile, the Yogi government has already acquired nearly 1,500 hectares for the UP Defence Corridor across the six identified nodes viz. Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi, Chitrakoot, Kanpur and Lucknow for allotment to the public and private sector companies.

Besides, 20 companies had signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government for setting up units in the Aligarh node, of which 12 entities, with projected investment of more than Rs 1,000 crore, had been allotted land.

Earlier, Indian Navy had also signed an MoU with UPEIDA for setting up a ‘Centre of Excellence’ in the UP Defence Corridor to promote research and innovation in the defence sector.