MoD & NSE sign MoU, move to facilitate MSMEs in defence sector to fund their growth plan

The Ministry of Defence and National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Monday, to facilitate capital market access to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the defence sector.

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 collaboration, for a period of five years, will help the MSMEs in the defence sector to fund and strategise their growth plan.

"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 the NSE platform 'NSE Emerge'," said an official statement.

The 'NSE Emerge' platform offers new and viable options for raising equity capital from a diversified set of investors.

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

NSE will also assist MSMEs in connecting with intermediaries like merchant bankers, registrar, transfer agents, depositories etc., and guide them regarding the capital markets, capital raising mechanism and regulatory compliance and requirements.

Notably, the government has taken several policy initiatives in the past few years under the 'Make in India' programme and brought in reforms to encourage indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence equipment in the country.

Export procedures have been simplified and made industry-friendly with end-to-end online export authorisation curtailing delays and bringing an Ease of Doing Business.

Further, the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiatives have helped the country by encouraging indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence equipment in the country, thereby reducing dependence on imports in the long run.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in a recent interaction with IANS had said: "In 2014, the country's defence exports stood at around Rs 600-800 crore. Today, it has gone beyond Rs 31,000 crore. And, in the next five years, we hope to take it beyond Rs 50,000 crore."