The missile technology has a scope of creating a Rs 1,00,000-crore market for the Indian private sector, said scientists and top defence officials involved in the Agni V project.
If the missile technology, wherein India has proved its mettle, was backed by an advanced aircraft manufacturing ability, they claimed it could be provide a Rs 2,00,000 crore market to the private sector.
The people, who spoke include DRDO director general scientific advisor to the defence minister V.K. Saraswat, chief controller for R&D (missiles and strategic systems) and Agni progra-mme director Avinash Cha-nder and six other scientists, who were honoured by FICCI on Monday.
Speaking about the Agni project, Mr Chander said that it just took three years for them to take Agni V from the draft board to the launch pad, with an active contribution from more than 150 companies, including 40-50 from Hyderabad.
He said the participation of the private sector in the defence projects could help India to realise its Vision 2030 for achieving self-reliance.
Mr Chander said that no date has been finalised for test firing long range cruise missile Nirbhay.
Hyderabad-based companies, Dr Saraswat claimed, have now graduated from designing and manufacturing sub-systems to systems for missile technology.
Sangita Reddy, the chairperson of Ficci Andhra Pradesh, commended the entrepreneurship spirit in the state and the latest being in the defence related productions.
Amongst others to be honoured were V.G. Sekaran, director, Advanced Systems Laboratory, S.K. Chaudhuri, director of Research Centre IMARAT, A.K. Chakrabarti, director of Defence Research and Development Laboratory, S.P. Dash, director of Interim Test Range, G. Sateesh Reddy, associate director of RCI and R.K. Gupta, project director of Agni-V.