Vendors Conclave, was organised by CII Andhra Pradesh and Material Organisation - Visakhapatnam, Indian Navy on 04 October 2019. The meet was attended by CII members, PSUs/DPSUs and young entrepreneurs. The chief guest for the event was Vice Admiral Sunil Anand, AVSM, NM, Controller of Logistics, Indian Navy.

The officials from the Eastern Naval Command and Material Organisation apprised the CII members about mandate of the Indian Navy and role of Material Organisations in providing logistics and material support to the warships, submarines and aircrafts as well as establishments of the Indian Navy.

The primary aim of this meet was to spread awareness about the procedures involved in defence procurement, indigenisation, inspection modalities and complex nature of naval inventory in addition to interaction on issues of mutual concerns.

The meet also aimed to encourage entrepreneurs, MSMEs and Start-ups to get registered on Government eMarket place (GeM), participate in indigenized manufacturing & development of products towards reducing imports under the aegis of Make in India programme and favourable policies of the government to boost defence manufacturing by indigenous manufacturers.

Mr J Srinivasa Raju, Vice Chairman, CII Visakhapatnam Zone and Convenor, Aerospace & Defence Panel, CII AP in his industry address briefed about CII Defence working group in the form of Defence cluster with inclusion of Educational Institutions, Industry members, Startup initiatives of Government of India and DRDO will be operational, shortly and requested Navy support in this initiative.