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APART OF THE $2.5-billion Kalyani Group, Kalyani Strategic Systems manufactures artillery guns for the Indian Army. The group now aims to expand into aerospace and developing jet engines. BW Businessworld’s Manish Kumar Jha chats up Kalyani Group Chairman Babasaheb Neelkanth Kalyani about the group’s numerous defence forays. Excerpts:

What are the focus areas for Kalyani Strategic Systems (KSSL)? The focus areas for KSSL are artillery guns, armoured vehicles, protected vehicles, air defence systems, and ammunition. Our aim is to indigenize all the three aspects of any defence manufacturing, that is design and technology; manufacturing capability and infrastructure; and maintenance and life cycle support.

What is the outlook on aerospace and defence? What kind of incremental growth do you see in the future from these businesses?

Aerospace and defence are a natural progression for us. These are areas where we can leverage our existing capabilities, skills, resources, knowledge, experience and acumen. We see tremendous potential here, especially with the product profile we have developed over the last few years. Kalyani Group is participating in land platform segment programmes worth $3-4 billion for the Indian Armed Forces. A majority of these programmes are in various stages of procurement by the customer. Once in production, they will steer Kalyani Group to be the market leader in the segment. We are already executing medium-level Ministry of Defence orders like dual technology mine detectors, export orders for armoured troop carrier, ammunition, etc. We are also engaged with OFB and HAL in meeting their component and sub-system level requirements. Our Make in India strategy is also well on its way, wherein we are targeting import substitution across all verticals.

Also, please tell us about collaborations with foreign OEMs?