Defence ministry, NSE ink MoU to facilitate fund access to defence sector MSMEs

New Delhi [India], July 29 (ANI): The defence ministry and National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate capital market access to the MSMEs.

The MoU was signed by Additional Secretary, Department of Defence Production (DDP) and Managing Director, NSE in the presence of Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane.

The MoU intends to facilitate MSMEs in the defence sector to raise productive capital for their growth plan in an efficient and transparent manner through NSE platform ‘NSE Emerge’ — which offers new and viable options for raising equity capital from investors, as per a press release.

The MoU will be in force for a period of five years, during which, DDP and NSE would conduct an extensive awareness drive through seminars, MSME camps, knowledge sessions, road shows and workshops to guide corporates engaged with the Ministry of Defence for fund raising.

The agreement will help MSMEs and emerging companies in defence sector to scale-up their business operations, explore new markets and fund their R&D activities.

India’s defence exports have touched a record Rs 21,083 crore (about USD 2.63 billion) in the financial year 2023-24, with a growth of 32.5 per cent over the last fiscal when the figure was Rs 15,920 crore. The recent figures indicate that the defence exports have grown by 31 times in the last 10 years as compared to 2013-14.The total value of defence production in India rose 17 per cent to Rs 1,26,887 crore last fiscal year.

The government has taken several policy initiatives in the past few years and brought in reforms to encourage indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence equipment, thereby promoting self-reliance in defence manufacturing.

The government is also investing heavily in defence and aerospace manufacturing, with defence hubs being set up. Indian defence PSUs have accumulated tremendously high returns on equities in the past few years, benefiting for the fresh orders.

Notably, many global companies have either shared or showed intent, to share critical defence and aerospace knowledge with India, that will create business avenues for MSMEs.