Context: Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to lay down the foundation stone of Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor project in Jhansi.

• Tamil Nadu Defence Industrial Corridor: It comprises Chennai, Tiruchirappalli, Coimbatore, Salem and Hosur. It will create new defence production facilities and promote clusters with necessary testing and certification facilities, export facilitation centres, technology transfer facilitation, etc.

Key Points

• For Jhansi Node of the Corridor, UP government has made about 1,034 hectares of land available.
• A plant for propulsion system for Anti-Tank Guided Missiles is being set up by the Bharat Dynamics Ltd, which is a Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU), in Jhansi Node. It will cover an area of 183 acres of land in Jhansi.
• Jhansi node of the facility will involve an investment of Rs 400 crore.
• It will provide direct employment to 150 people and indirect employment to around 500 people.

Defence Industrial Corridor of UP

• It is an aspirational project that intends to reduce foreign dependency of the Indian Aerospace & Defence Sector.
• It will have 6 nodes – Aligarh, Agra, Kanpur, Chitrakoot, Jhansi and Lucknow.
• The Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA) is the nodal agency to execute this project in conjunction with various other state agencies.
• It aims to bring up the state as one of the largest & advanced Defence manufacturing hubs and put it on the world map.

Key Features

• Single Window approvals and clearances to Defence and Aerospace (D&A) manufacturing units via Nivesh Mitra.
• Nivesh Mitra Portal has been launched by the Government of Uttar Pradesh to ease the Ease of Doing Business in the state.
• Labour Permits for D&A industry towards flexible employment conditions.
• Simple Procedures and rationalised regulatory regime with easy reimbursement of incentives and subsidies.
• Assured water supply and uninterrupted electricity.
• Connectivity with 4-lane heavy-duty highway.

Reason for choosing UP for Defence Corridor

• Uttar Pradesh is the fourth largest state in India and the third largest economy within the country.
• With a population of more than 200 million, UP has the highest number of available labour force and is one of the top five manufacturing states in India.
• The state also ranks first in terms of number of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country and ranks 2nd in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB).

Defence Corridors

• A defence corridor refers to a route or a path along which domestic productions of defence equipment by public sector, private sector and MSMEs are lined up to enhance the operational capability of the defence forces.

Significance

• It will help in making the nation self-reliant in the field of defense production and promoting 'Make in India', which will reduce our imports and promote the export of these items to other countries.
• It will provide a fillip to the defence manufacturing ecosystem through synergistic development of technologies, promote the growth of private domestic manufacturers, including MSMEs and Start-Ups.

Key Challenges
Technological Development in Defence

• The first challenge in the development of technology is in advanced electronics and materials, which cut across all the verticals.
• The second challenge is relative immaturity of Material Science to use lighter and stronger intelligent material.

Meeting Industries Expectations

• Meeting expectations of the industry, who not only wants faster clearance of their proposals for setting up or shifting their bases, but also tax benefits like in Special Economic Zones (SEZ), faster decision making etc is a challenge for the government.

Less Involvement of Private Players

• While there is an over-concentration of orders with the public sector (leading to choking and queuing), hardly any orders are actually flowing to the private players.

Human Resource

• Unavailability of talented human resources is also one of the major issues.

Steps to promote Aatmanirbhar Bharat

• Ministry of Defence has taken various steps to promote ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ in defence in recent years. 
• These comprise of issue like positive indigenisation lists, promotion of start-ups under Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) initiative, 64 per cent capital procurement budget for domestic industry etc.