A mini defence expo will be held for the first time in Kolkata from July 6 to July 9, GOC-in-C, Eastern Command, Lt Gen R P Kalita said here Tuesday.
The event will give opportunity to start ups and MSMEs to showcase their products, he said.
Kalita who was speaking at a conclave on ‘Atmanirbhar Defence – Opportunities, Challenges and the Way Forward’ organised by a chamber of commerce, asked members of the industry to join the expo.

He said the Armed Forces are in touch with premier educational institutions for research and development of new products and he had recently visited IIT Guwahati for the purpose.

The nature of warfare is constantly changing and militaries across the world have to evolve and keep pace with technological developments and “Unless we try and infuse the technology into the method of warfighting, we will be left fighting tomorrow’s war with yesterday’s weapons,” the Eastern Army commander said.
India’s national security paradigm, he said, is based on strategic autonomy and it can only be ensured with a strong military possessing adequate hard power. “For this we need to constantly strengthen our military capabilities while at the same time meet the social development aspirations of the nation. There has to be a fine balance between the two”.

He emphasised the requirement for indigenous development of niche technologies which are the emerging areas of defence research, that include nano technology, robotics and artificial intelligence among others.

“That is where the future warfare lies and unless we indigenise and develop these technologies we will be left out of battle”.

Kalita said that India has to be self reliant in critical technologies like missile and precision guidance, navigation technology and radar technology. Countries who possess these generally deny it.

“These are areas where we have to focus on indigenous development in industry and academia,’ he said.

The Army Design Bureau projects the requirements of the field army for long term research, development of indigenous weapons and equipment and identification and induction of niche technologies.
The Directorate of Indigenisation has identified items worth Rs 12,300 crore as current and future indigenous requirement of the Indian Army and has already completed projects worth Rs 1,500 crores.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for MSMEs and defence manufacturing sector,” the Eastern Army commander said.

Referring to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Kalita said it has taught that a nation has to fight its war alone and the importance of self reliance. The importance of hard power and the myth that the era of open conflict is over has also been broken by it.

“There was also a myth that all future conflicts will be short-duration wars, (but) the Russia-Ukraine war has been going on for more than three months now,” he said.

On the importance of sea lanes passing through the Indian Ocean region, he said “To control the threat emanating from it (the Indian Ocean region) is also an issue which we need to consider and be cognizant of”.