Gandhinagar: The Indian Army is moving towards the 'Make in India' model with almost every acquisition in the field of small arms being 'Made in India' products, Vivek Ramakrishna, rifle manufacturer in Gujarat-based SSS Defence said on Tuesday.

The manufacturer of the rifle in the SSS Defence in Gandhinagar said that they have coined the phrase "Born in Bharat" which is different from Made in India.

"We've coined the phrase 'Born in Bharat'. Everything is homegrown by making every single part. We own all intellectual property. As far as local content is concerned we are almost hitting the 85 per cent mark in terms of cost," Ramakrishna said.

"The only thing stopping us from going up to 100 per cent is because certain things do not make sense commercially as they're very easily available off the shelf, for example, magazines," he added.

Ramakrishna said that the company has been interacting with the Indian Army for nearly five years and some of the upgrades of the company have been inducted into the service.

"Indian Army is very clearly moving towards the Make in India model, there is no doubt about the fact that pretty much every acquisition going forward in the area of small arms will be made in India products. We have been interacting with the armed forces from 2017 onwards. Some of our upgrades have already found their way into service," he said.

"We're also working with the ministry of home affairs, state police requirements. For us, the idea is to retain access to this particular technology inside the country and export it," Ramakrishna added.

With an aim to give impetus to the defence sector, India's "biggest ever" defence exhibition - DefExpo 2022 is all set to take place in Gandhinagar, Gujarat from Tuesday.

This is the 12th edition of the event that has been organised on the theme 'Path to Pride'.

According to the Ministry of Defence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will grace the inaugural ceremony on October 19.

Addressing the curtain raiser press conference in Gandhinagar on Monday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, that the DefExpo 2022 will showcase the growing prowess of the domestic defence industry, calling it one of the major drivers of the nation's resolve to achieve 'Make in India, Make for the World'.

DefExpo 2022 will be the first-ever edition exclusively for Indian companies. Indian companies, Indian subsidiaries of Foreign OEMs, Division of a company registered in India, and Exhibitor having a Joint Venture with an Indian company will be considered as Indian participants. The DefExpo 2022 will also mark the celebration of one year of the formation of the seven new defence companies, carved out of the erstwhile Ordnance Factory Board.

All these companies will participate in DefExpo for the first time. 451 partnerships in terms of MoUs, Transfer of Technology agreements and product launches, almost double than the last edition, are expected during the Bandhan ceremony on October 20.