S.P. Shukla, group president, Aerospace, Defence & Steel, Mahindra Group, talks to BW Businessworld about his group’s defence plans for India. Edited excerpts:
On India as a manufacturing baseThe aerospace and defence industries are currently slowing down across the globe with the exception of India and a few other pockets perhaps, due to major cuts in overall budgets. This puts us in a unique position to forge partnerships with the best in the industry and address the global markets, while also delivering for the Indian market.
On Make in India One can easily foresee large scale indigenisation in the coming years, with this endeavour being spearheaded at the top echelons of the government.
The reflection of positivity created by these recent changes in policy is the fact that both Indian and foreign players are fully committed to Make in India for their state-of-art land, air and naval platforms. Today, the Indian industry is gearing up to manufacture helicopters, fighter aircraft, unmanned airborne vehicles, submarines, ships, armoured vehicles and various other types of equipment for the Indian defence forces. The day is not far away when many of these platforms would also be exported to friendly nations.
On India’s plans to boost arms exports 20-fold in a decade to $3 billionThe Indian Industry has the potential and capability to become an export base for global markets in the coming decades. The Mahindra Group has forged a trusting relationship with the defence forces in our country. We have consolidated our aerospace and defence sector and have built capability to serve the needs of the three services — Army, Navy and Air Force. While our objective is to serve the Indian Armed Forces, excess capacity going forward will be used to boost India’s exports in the aerospace and defence sectors.
On products that the group is looking to manufacture In the defence sector we have now built capability to offer platforms, weapons, sensors, sub-systems, IT solutions, maintenance and training, to name a few. Thus, we are in a unique position to deliver across a wide range of needs of the Indian Armed Forces. We also have partnerships with several global OEMs to receive and absorb technology in these areas.
On group’s business targets The main target for us at this stage is to build both capability and capacity in the aerospace and defence sectors. For example in the aerospace sector, we have built large-scale capacity even before receipt of any orders from the Ministry of Defence. Similarly, we have built considerable capability and skill sets for land platforms. Our main target is to build both capacity and capability.
On challenges that the group needs to overcome We would need to create an ecosystem, which is today rather weak in the aerospace and defence sectors. Here, we would need to work closely with the MSMEs and build an efficient supply chain to sustain the Make in India initiative. Thereafter, we would need to take measured steps to reach the indigenisation goals that we have ambitiously set to achieve.
suman@businessworld.in
BW Reporters
Suman K Jha was the deputy editor with BW Businessworld
