Our Sourcing From India Will Double In The Next Few Years

It's a known fact that the Indian government is working hard to increase defence and aerospace procurement from indigenous sources – from the current 40% to 70%, in the next 10 years. The Dollar Business recently caught up with Pratyush Kumar, President, Boeing India, to understand how manufacturers in India can leverage growth opportunities and what makes India a preferred sourcing destination for the American aircraft-maker.

- Niladri S. Nath

TDB: “India has to make a decision whether it wants to keep buying from France or wants to create industrial capacity.” This is what you said last year when the Indian government placed an order of 36 fighter jets with French defence major Rafale. Has the outlook of the government changed? 

Pratyush Kumar (PK): It was pretty clear at that time that India was going to place orders with Rafale. But, the question was what would happen beyond that. After that, the government made it quite clear that they need 200 more fighter jets. However, at the same time, the government also made it clear that the approach for sourcing would be 'Make in India'. It’s evident that the government doesn’t want to keep buying from outside and wants to create a domestic capacity to manufacture advanced fighter planes. What we have been hearing is that the first step to that end would be to create a model for selecting domestic strategic partners. After that, they will come up with the methodology for moving forward. Will the government follow Request For Proposal (RFP) model or will go for a government-to-government collaboration? We don’t know the answer as of now. But, the gating factor is the process of selecting the strategic partnerships.

TDB: Has 'Make in India' and opening up of the defence sector augured well for the industry?