The state of Maharashtra is the leading sub-national economy of the Republic of India. With robust lay out of public infrastructure, conducive policies from the central and state governments, and a steady supply of highly-skiilled and young work force, Maharashtra is aiming to reach state domestic gross product of USD 1 trillion in the next few years. The state has identified space, aerospace and defence as main pillar of its growing economy, taking into consideration the central government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat vision. Maharashtra enjoys the presence of strategic military and non-military infrastructure that now aids in ensuring industrial production from within the state contributes to national requirements in large volumes and with tunable supply cadence.
The recent wars fought all across the world, including India’s Operation Sindoor, has demonstrated the criticality of new-age innovations in the fighting of next wars. Better equipped and secure weaponry and military C4ISR systems are central to winnings of battles and wars. However, that continuous innovation is only possible through funding mechanisms that are capable of forecasting the warfare trends, anticipating the shocks in supply chains, ensuring contigencies, and determining the obsolescence of weapons and C4ISR systems so as to not compromise the interests of the nation. In this regard, Maharashtra is developing a vast innovation-manufacturing-testing network which requires continuous innovations and the same calls for identifying new financing measures.
This ORF Space Conversation will discuss what are some of the state-of-the-art projects that are appearing on the soil of Maharashtra, and what type of financing mechanisms are being attempted to ensure that full life cycle of innovation is financed domestically and via reliable international partners.
Driving Questions:
- Which special efforts and projects are being undertaken in Maharashtra across the strategic space, aerospace, defence sectors?
- Which are some of the public, retail and venture capital financing mechanisms that are now aiding innovations in the sectors?
- What is currently missing in Maharashtra that must be attempted through reforms and facilitations by the state and central government that would
- make these three sectors one solid pillar of the state’s USD 1 trillion GSDP goal.