India- Defexpo 2010

Indian Defexpo 2010
Gets Firm Schedule

NEW DELHI — The back-and-forth over the venue and
schedule for India’s major land and naval systems symposium,
Defexpo 2010, has been settled.
Defexpo will be held according to its original schedule
— from Feb. 15-18, 2010 here in New Delhi — but with one
change. The show is being directly organized by the Indian
Ministry Of Defense instead of the Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII), which has been organizing Defexpo since
its inception.
The organizers have been criticized for reducing space
and increasing exhibitor costs over the previous show. “We
have increased costs by just 10 percent over the previous
show,” an official said.
The bids to manage Defexpo have gone out for 2010,
2012 and 2014 to two bidders — the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry and CII. It is not clear
whether the defense ministry will rebid.
“It is a pity that the [ministry] is the event manager,” one
industry official said. “The industry needs to have a professionally
set up show. I am skeptical whether they can manage it.”
- Neelam Mathews (mathews.neelam@gmail.com)