Army personnel explaining the exhibits to visitors at the Army Expo in Coimbatore city on May 29, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
On May 29, 2024, the second and final day of the Army Expo in Coimbatore, people waited in a long queue to see the artillery and Army equipment on display; students took selfies with the Defence personnel; children clapped and cheered the soldiers who performed drills; and the industry had discussions on supplying to the Defence.
“We are not celebrities. Yet, so many people wanted to take photos with us. This is like a Thiruvizha,” remarked one of the officers.
While the public, especially school and college students, learnt more about the Indian Army at the two-day Southern Star Army Academia Industry Interface (Army Expo) in Coimbatore, about 60 MSME engineering industries had a detailed discussion with the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and the Army on the opportunities to be a part of the indigenisation programme of the Defence forces.
The meeting of the MSMEs lasted for more than an hour and the industries now have contacts at the DPSUs. The Army personnel and the DPSU officials visited the stalls and some of them the factories too. The main demand is for spares, said V. Sundaram, a director of the CODISSIA Defence Innovation and Atal Incubation Centre.
There is an online platform for the industries to present innovative products to the Defence forces. If the forces find it useful they can mentor the industries to develop the product for deployment, he added.
Biggen Technology demonstrated their unmanned aerial vehicle helicopters (versions 1.0 and 2.0), which are currently used only in the Central and State governments’ sectors.
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