The two day ‘Defence Industry Development Meet’ organised by Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence (MoD) was inaugurated by RakshaMantriSmtNirmalaSitharaman in the august presence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Shri Edappadi K. Palaniswami at KalaivanarArangam in Chennai today.The objective of the Meet is to forge new partnerships with private industry with the aim to achieve self-reliance in defence production under the overarching ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Union Government.The meet will focus on indigenisation, import substitution and technology infusion. The event is part of the Ministry’s initiative to encourage and facilitate participation of private industries especially MSMEs in Defence Manufacturing.The event will provide private firms/companies especially vendors from Tamil Nadu region an overview of the existing defence procurement policy, indigenisation and outsourcing procedures of DPSUs/OFB and update them on the recent Government policy initiatives to promote indigenisation and outsourcing and the opportunities thereon.Speaking on the occasion, SmtSitharaman announced that the next Defence Expo would be organised in Chennai between April 11 and 14, 2018.Senior Officials from Ministry of Defence, State Government, Services, Chairman OFB, CMDs of DPSUs, senior executives of DPSUs/OFB and private industries attended the inaugural function. Governor of Tamil Nadu Shri BanwarilalPurohitand RakshaRajyaMantri Dr Subhash Bhamre will attend the valedictory function scheduled on January 19, 2018.