Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2675 actions· ✨ 91 recent

The Government of Maharashtra, Industries Department, notified the Maharashtra Industry, Investment, and Services Policy-2025 on 31 December 2025, valid for five years and superseding the prior Maharashtra Industrial Policy 2019. The umbrella state-level instrument supports Maharashtra's "trillion-dollar economy by 2030" and "Developed Maharashtra 2047" vision with targets of ₹70.5 lakh crore (~USD 850 bn) cumulative investment, 50 lakh (5 million) jobs across manufacturing and services, and expansion of industry's share of Gross State Value Added to 30%. It is Maharashtra's first-ever combined industry + services + investment-promotion framework (prior policies were industry-only), establishes the unified "Invest Maharashtra" platform and revamped MAITRI 2.0 portal (125+ services, AI investor support, blockchain document verification), and empowers a Cabinet Sub-Committee under the Chief Minister to sanction bespoke customised-package incentives for Mega and Ultra-Mega Projects above the ₹500 crore threshold.

On 30 December 2025, the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments (RKIK), an agency under the Ministry of Defence, signed framework agreements with four companies to build production facilities at the Ermistu Defence Industrial Park in Pärnumaa county. The state commits more than €50 million in core site infrastructure (access roads, electricity grid connections, water/wastewater, perimeter security); the four selected companies are expected to match that with comparable private investment in their own production buildings. Commercial production at all four facilities is scheduled to begin in 2027, establishing Estonia's first domestically-produced ammunition, explosive-charge, short-range air-defence missile, and plastic-explosives capacity in nearly a century.

On 8 December 2025 the Council of the EU gave final approval to Regulation (EU) 2025/2643 establishing the European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP), the first dedicated EU defence-industrial regulation. The regulation was signed on 17 December 2025 and entered into force on 30 December 2025 following publication in the Official Journal. EDIP provides EUR 1.5bn in grants for 2025-2027 plus an earmarked EUR 300m Ukraine Support Instrument, sets a statutory cap limiting non-EU/EEA components to 35% of estimated component cost in end-products procured with Union funding, and creates EU-level demand-aggregation, common procurement and security-of-supply frameworks for defence products.

On 25 November 2025 China's National Space Administration (CNSA) released a two-year action plan — covering 2025 through 2027 — setting out 22 key measures to formalise and accelerate the development of China's commercial space sector. The plan transitions commercial space policy from a "nurturing" phase (subsidy-pull, loosely regulated) to a "standards-pull / high-quality development" phase, opening national aerospace R&D programmes and launch-infrastructure slots to private operators, establishing a national commercial space development fund, directing government procurement toward commercial launch vehicles and satellites, and unifying previously fragmented provincial regulatory standards. The plan structurally mirrors NASA's COTS/Commercial Crew model and sets commercial operators on course to expand China's ~18% private-firm share of an estimated US$15bn-per-year domestic launch market toward the 2027 horizon aligned with the 15th Five-Year Plan.

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry amended the Export Trade Control Order (輸出貿易管理令) on 14 November 2025 to extend the specific bulk-licence (特別包括許可 / tokubetsu hōkatsu kyoka) framework to accessories and parts of defence equipment exported for maintenance and repair purposes to countries holding a Defence Equipment and Technology Transfer Agreement (DETTA / 防衛装備品・技術移転協定) with Japan. Prior to the amendment, each transfer of such parts required an individual export-licence application specifying parts and quantities per transaction, which impeded the rapid parts-flow essential to operational maintenance cycles. The amendment entered into force on 14 February 2026 and currently covers eleven DETTA-partner countries: the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

India's Ministry of Defence signed a contract worth over Rs 62,370 crore (excluding taxes, ~USD 7.5 billion) with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on 25 September 2025 for 97 Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Mk1A — 68 single-seat fighters and 29 twin-seat trainers — for the Indian Air Force. The acquisition falls under the "Buy (India-IDDM)" (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured) category of the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 and carries an indigenous-content requirement of over 64%, incorporating 67 additional indigenous items compared with the prior January 2021 LCA Mk1A contract. Deliveries begin 2027-28 and run over six years, supported by a vendor base of roughly 105 Indian component manufacturers.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 450 million loan with Thales to finance the group's 2025-2027 research and development investment programme in aeronautics and radar. The aeronautics stream targets safety and efficiency improvements for civil and military flight; the radar stream funds modernisation of existing equipment and development of a new generation of civil and military radar systems and software. The EIB frames the deal as its first-ever corporate loan to Thales and one of the largest it has extended to Europe's security and defence sector, part of a EUR 3.5 billion (3.5% of 2025 financing) EIB Group allocation to security and defence.

On 8 September 2025, the UK Ministry of Defence published the Defence Industrial Strategy 2025 — "Making Defence an Engine for Growth" (CP 1388) — the first comprehensive cabinet-level UK defence industrial strategy in over a decade and the sector plan for Defence under the UK Modern Industrial Strategy umbrella (IS-8). The strategy was published alongside the Strategic Defence Review 2025 and operationalises the largest sustained defence- spending increase since the Cold War (rising to 2.6% of GDP by 2027 with ambition to 3% in the next Parliament). It defines six priority outcomes (growth, backing UK businesses, defence innovation, resilient industrial base, procurement transformation, enduring partnerships); establishes UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) within the MOD with a ringfenced £400m budget to accelerate dual-use technology; identifies priority defence capabilities (combat air, complex weapons, directed-energy weapons, next- generation land and maritime systems) plus dual-use sub-sectors (quantum, drones/autonomy, space, AI, cyber, engineering biology, advanced connectivity); and flags resilience priorities in steel, construction, energetic materials, batteries, semiconductors and rare earths.

On 31 July 2025 the General Office of the Guangdong Provincial Government issued Yue Ban Han [2025] No. 231, promulgating 21 policy measures across seven categories to accelerate commercial space development in the province through 2028 (published 19 August 2025; in force through 31 December 2028). The package funds satellite-constellation and ground-station buildout (10% capex subsidy, capped at RMB 2m per node and RMB 10m per firm annually), rocket/satellite equipment subsidies (up to 30% of unit sale price, capped at RMB 7-9m per set depending on catalog tier), up to 50% matching funds for qualifying national R&D programs, a 100% pre-tax R&D expense deduction, industrial-park investment rebates (up to 2% of new fixed-asset investment, paid to municipal governments), government procurement preference for demonstration applications, and dedicated investment funds and insurance-premium subsidies for launch and satellite-operator risk. It implements an earlier provincial action plan (2024-2028) and predates China's national CNSA commercial-space action plan (25 November 2025) by four months.

Poland's Sejm adopted on 25 July 2025 — and the President signed on 5 August 2025 (Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1080, in force 7 September 2025) — a Special Act on Strategic Investments in the Field of National Defence and Public Security that creates an accelerated authorisation track for defence and public- security infrastructure projects: a single combined administrative decision issued within 90 days of application, simplified notification regime inside closed military zones, replacement of full environmental and water-law assessments with targeted mitigation, and an exemption from the Public Procurement Law for Ministry-of-National-Defence-cleared unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned weapon platforms and counter-drone systems. The statute is the procedural backbone for Poland's PLN 187bn 2025 defence budget (≈4.7% of GDP, the highest share in NATO) and dovetails with Poland's €43.7bn EU SAFE defence-loan allocation signed in May 2026.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 385 million financing agreement with Spanish technology group Indra on 15 July 2025 to fund research, development and innovation in defence and space technologies — radar, electronic defence, electro-optics, command-and-control communications and advanced digitalisation. The financing backs construction of the Indra Technology Hub, an integrated R&D and advanced-manufacturing centre in Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid region), and covers Indra's planned 2025-2028 capital and operating expenditure in Spain. The EIB describes it as its largest financing agreement in Spain to date and part of a EUR 3.5 billion (3.5% of 2025 Group financing) EIB allocation to European security and defence capability-building. Global Trade Alert separately logged the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention.

On July 12, 2025, French and New Caledonian political parties signed the Bougival Accord ("Accord pour l'Avenir de la Nouvelle-Calédonie"), establishing a Pacte de Refondation Économique et Sociale that commits the French state to €2 billion+ over five years for territorial reconstruction, paired with a dedicated strategic nickel plan to rescue New Caledonia's three severely stressed metallurgical plants — SLN/Doniambo (Eramet), KNS/Koniambo (shut since August 2024), and Prony Resources/Goro. An interministerial mission under the Prime Minister was established to coordinate the recovery. New Caledonia holds approximately 25% of known global nickel reserves and supplies roughly 8% of world mine output, making the fate of its three processing plants a material chokepoint for battery-grade and aerospace-alloy nickel supply chains.

On 17 June 2025, at the Paris Air Show, the UK Department for Business and Trade announced over £250 million in joint government-and-industry funding for green aerospace research and technology projects, drawn from a £975 million allocation to the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme for 2025-2030. The tranche covers 11 major projects plus 18 smaller initiatives, led by Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Intelligent Energy, targeting hydrogen propulsion, additive manufacturing and engine-efficiency technologies aimed at net-zero aviation.

President Trump signed Executive Order 14307 on 6 June 2025 establishing the first whole-of-government Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) industrial-policy framework. The order (i) directs federal agencies to prioritise procurement and operation of US-manufactured UAS and to identify and rescind purchases of foreign-made drones where consistent with national security; (ii) tasks the FAA with proposing a Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) rule within 30 days and publishing a final BVLOS rule within 240 days; (iii) creates an eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) with at least five projects selected within 180 days; and (iv) instructs the Federal Acquisition Security Council to publish a "Covered Foreign Entity List" within 30 days, operationalising the §1709 FY24 NDAA architecture that targets Chinese drone manufacturers (DJI, Autel and successor entities). Published in the Federal Register on 11 June 2025 (90 FR 24727).

On 27 May 2025 the Council of the EU adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2025/1106 establishing the Security Action for Europe (SAFE) through the Reinforcement of the European Defence Industry Instrument. Published in the Official Journal of the EU and entering into force on 29 May 2025, SAFE is the EU's flagship financial pillar of the ReArm Europe / Readiness 2030 plan: it provides up to EUR 150bn in competitively priced long-maturity loans — raised by the Commission on capital markets via NGEU-style EU borrowing — to Member States for joint procurement of defence capabilities. Funded equipment must meet a 65% EU/EEA/Ukraine local-content rule, and procurement must involve at least one SAFE-beneficiary Member State plus another Member State (Ukraine, EEA-EFTA members and SAFE-associated countries also eligible).

On 30 April 2025 the General Office of the Guangdong Provincial People's Government issued Yue Fu Ban [2025] No. 11, "Several Measures of Guangdong Province to Further Stimulate Market Entity Vitality and Accelerate the Construction of a Modern Industrial System," effective immediately through 31 December 2027. The package subsidizes bank-loan interest for manufacturing and high-tech enterprises at up to 35% of the loan rate, capped at RMB 2 billion in total annual subsidy volume and RMB 20 million per enterprise per year, alongside an expansion of government-backed financing-guarantee coverage to over RMB 10 billion annually. It also funds foreign-invested R&D centers (up to RMB 1 million, or RMB 5 million for multinational global R&D centers) and offers headquarters-relocation bonuses of up to RMB 8 million, with priority given to semiconductors, AI, robotics, biotechnology, quantum technology, commercial aerospace, and new-energy vehicles.

The Tamil Nadu Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, cleared the Tamil Nadu Space Industrial Policy 2025 on 17 April 2025, with the policy text published by TIDCO in May 2025. The policy targets INR 10,000 crore (~USD 1.2bn) in space-sector investment over five years and 10,000 jobs, anchored around four designated Space Bays in Madurai, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, and Virudhunagar. Key instruments include a INR 500 crore Tamil Nadu Emerging Sector Seed Fund (TNESSF) for space-sector startups, payroll subsidies for R&D and Global Capability Centre operators, and a TIDCO–IN-SPACe MoU to coordinate manufacturing and research facilitation. The policy operationalises the Union Indian Space Policy 2023 (ISP-2023) at the state level and establishes Tamil Nadu as a third space-sector sub-national policy node alongside Karnataka and Gujarat.

On 25 March 2025 the European Commission adopted the first list of 47 Strategic Projects inside the EU under Article 7 of the Critical Raw Materials Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1252), followed on 4 June 2025 by 13 Strategic Projects located in third countries — 60 designations in total. The 47 EU projects span 13 Member States and 14 strategic raw materials, with an expected EUR 22.5bn capital-investment envelope; the 13 third-country projects require a further EUR 5.5bn. Designation triggers fast-track permitting (max 27 months for extraction, 15 months for processing/recycling), preferential access to EU/EIB/EBRD finance, and Member State priority status, operationalising the CRMA's 2030 benchmarks (≥10% extraction, ≥40% processing, ≥25% recycling, ≤65% single-country dependence).

The Government of Karnataka, Department of Industries and Commerce, notified the Karnataka Industrial Policy 2025-30 in the Karnataka Gazette on 11 February 2025, with the policy taking legal effect from 8 February 2025 and valid for five years (or until superseded). It supersedes the prior Karnataka Industrial Policy 2020-25. The umbrella state-level framework targets ₹7.5 lakh crore (~USD 90 bn) in fresh investment and 20 lakh (2 million) new jobs by 2030, positioning Karnataka as a top-Asia destination for high-technology manufacturing — semiconductors, EVs, aerospace, defence, biotech, medical devices, textiles and renewable energy. It introduces zone-based incentive categorisation (Zone 1/2/3 district classification), capital subsidies, stamp-duty exemption, electricity-tax exemption, interest subsidy, ESDM-specific top-up incentives that layer onto central PLI/ECMS/Semicon Mission schemes, and a Cabinet Sub-Committee under the Chief Minister to sanction bespoke "Anchor Investor" and "Mega/Ultra-Mega" customised incentive packages.