NEW DELHI September 9: Inaugurating the two-day Deftronics 2015 organised by India Electronics and Semiconductors Association (IESA) , R.S. Sharma, TRAI Chairman said that investment in the electronics manufacturing sector has not achieved its potential yet, though the current demand in the sector is valued at $100 billion. DEFTRONICS 2015 marks the beginning of India's defence independence led by the ESDM Industry in the nation. M N Vidyashankar, President - IESA said, "India is the 7th largest A&D (aerospace and defence) market globally and a lion's share of the market needs have been historically addressed by imports. Despite our defence budget increasing significantly year-on-year for the last few decades, very little has happened to strengthen the domestic A&D design and manufacturing capabilities. As our country is steadily transforming itself as a global superpower, defence self-reliance has become imperative in the recent times." "India's A&D sectors have been undergoing tremendous transformation with the government's strong push towards the creation of a fundamentally strong A&D ecosystem in our country. We offer all the support to the government in their (IESA) efforts to modernise the country's defence sector and glad to bring the policy makers, private & public defence players and other core ecosystem players under one platform" - said Vinay Shenoy, Chairman, India Electronics & Semiconductor Association India’s electronics manufacturing sector is poised for a leap in the coming years, with investment worth over $400 billion likely to come into the sector in the coming years, he further added. The event is focused on Building Global Partnerships for ‘Make in India’ in the Aerospace, Defence and Internal Security sector, organised by IESA and this is the second edition of Deftronics, with the first held in Bengaluru last year. Speakers and panelists highlighted the positive changes that have taken place in terms of policy and the steps taken by the present Indian government to provide a level playing field to the private players along with the public sector majors. Kalyani Group Chairman and Managing Director, Padma Bhushan - Baba Kalyani, called the moment in the sector’s history as an opportunity when the world economy is slowing and India isn’t much impacted. He added, “The global economy is staring at a pronounced slowdown with the exception of India as the only bright spot. With Increased FDI inflow, favourable policy environment, the Indian GDP is expected grow upwards of 7 percent this year and it is an opportune time for Indian manufacturing in particular.” DIPP Joint Secretary Shubhra Singh said, “Defence is an industry where the government is the primary spender and it sets the rules. Of the entire demand, only about 30 percent is manufactured in India and that too by the Public sector,” “Defence sectors are dependent on DPSUs. The only way to rewrite this imbalance is to bring in the Private Sector. To promote this, we need to create domestic base first,” she added In the last one year, defence sector has opened up systematically, raising FDI from 26 percent to 49 percent and this can go even more on a case-to-case basis.