Can Anil Ambani Make Defence His Flagship Business?

Reliance Defence has entered into as many as 30 partnerships in 10 countries over a year.

- Suman

Anil Ambani likes to be known as a long-distance runner. Defence manufacturing is the next marathon he wants to run — and win, big time.

In the year-and-a-half since Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Make in India programme, Ambani has gone about acquiring India’s state-of-the-art Pipavav naval shipyard (the Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company) and forging a number of agreements with some of the world’s leading defence manufacturers in air, land and naval domains of weaponry.

In the course of one year, Reliance Defence (RDL) has entered into as many as 30 partnerships in 10 countries. Reliance Defence is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure and has spawned 13 subsidiaries in niche segments of the defence sector, like propulsion systems (Reliance Propulsion Systems), defence infrastructure and aerospace (Reliance Defence & Aerospace).

“At the Reliance group, we are proud to be at the fore front of the national effort. In consonance with the Prime Minister’s vision of Make in India and Skill India, we have ventured into the defence sector by making India’s largest defence acquisition at an outlay of more than Rs 10,000 crore. The acquisition of the Pipavav Shipyard is a demonstration of our resolve to walk the talk and make India’s and the Prime Minister’s vision a reality,” Ambani said at the Andhra Partnership summit in Visakhapatnam some months ago.