BEST TIME FOR THE INDUSTRY

The days ahead could see the Indian aerospace & defence industry growing by leaps and bounds, says GK Pillai, Director, Walchandnagar Industries Limited (WIL)

- Niranjan Mudholkar

“There is a need to build a strong and competent MSME base to support large companies involved in the defence equipment manufacturing.”

How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected the industry in general and your organisation in particular?

The Covid -19 pandemic had actually at first brought in a lot of uncertainty in the industry. In the initial phase the industry was not able to actually fathom what the repercussions could be. But thereafter, when things started becoming a bit clearer, the realities started hitting the industries. There was, at many places, a total shutdown and also closure of the supply chain mechanism which impacted and brought down the industry to a stand still for the first month. The second worry was whether the end customer will lift the goods if it is even manufactured and how the order inflow will be impacted.