Global biggies list plans for India

Lucknow, February 5, 2020

Global biggies of the defence manufacturing sector today laid out their plans for India and spoke about the trade worth millions of dollars being done from India besides creation of thousands of skilled jobs.

Organised by industry body Assocham, a seminar on “Application of contemporary technologies in strategic programmes”, saw the world’s biggest companies—Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Airbus—pitch how they saw their future in India on the opening day of the DefExpo here.

Vivek Lall, vice-president (strategy & business development), Lockheed Martin, said, “The US and India are natural partners.” He said his company, working with 450 defence suppliers in India, had been functioning here for the past 35 years. “We are looking into future … for a robust partnership,” he said adding that his company was working to provide training to Indian ventures and helping start-ups.

Lall is the co-chairperson of the US India Business Council (USIBC) delegation.

President of Boeing India Salil Gupte said, “We are harnessing data to improve our products.”

Anand Stanley, president and managing director, Airbus India, said a lot of work in the space sector was being done at Bangalore. The design work of the Airbus A330 Neo (a civilian plane) was being done here in India, Stanley said.

Baba Kalyani, CEO of the Kalyani group, said artificial intelligence was an area in which India could lead the world. Defence production sector could do what the automotive sector had done for India, Kalyani added.