The Ministry of Defence plans to hold the biennial defence exhibition DefExpo 2022 in Gandhinagar in October, with invitations expected to be distributed in the first week of June. Though the event was originally scheduled for March, the Russia-Ukraine war made it difficult for a large number of foreign participants to arrive in India with their equipment.
According to sources, once flight routes are reopened and normal traffic resumes, the Ministry will likely announce new dates and send out invitations for the five-day exhibition. They also stated that close to a thousand companies, including the world’s largest defence manufacturers, are expected to attend the event.
The expo will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is expected to spend a couple of days in his home state of Gujarat’s capital city meeting with top defence executives. If everything goes as planned, the Gujarat sky will be buzzing with choppers and transport planes on the eve of the state assembly elections, with hundreds of foreign participants bringing in their wares such as helicopters, missiles, radars, tanks, armoured vehicles, and heavy artillery to display at the marquee event.
The event’s format was set by the Ministry. Aside from the global and local defence companies hawking their wares, seminars on technology transfer and indigenisation are held throughout the day, business and investment meetings are facilitated, and Indian states compete with one another to attract investments that the big sellers are required to make under the offset policy.
