South Asia and Beyond

Amid Push For Self-Reliance In Defence, HAL’s Stock Rises

Nitin A. Gokhale
March 23, 2024 - 4:10 pm
1 minute read

Earlier this month, the defence ministry signed a contract of over ₹8,000 crore with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for acquisition of 24 Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) Dhruv Mark III for the Indian Army and the Coast Guard. It demonstrates another significant push in the government’s quest for self-reliance in defence. It also shows renewed confidence in the capabilities of HAL which is also making the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mark IA. In this episode of ‘Simply Nitin’, which comes to you from a HAL facility in Bengaluru, StratNews Global Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale talks about how the public sector major has ramped up its capabilities and what its forward plans are.

Nitin A. Gokhale

Left to himself, Nitin A. Gokhale would rather watch films and sports matches but his day job as a media entrepreneur, communications specialist, analyst and author, leaves him little time to indulge in his primary interests. Gokhale in fact started his career in journalism in 1983 as a sports reporter. Since then he has, in the past 41 years, traversed the entire spectrum across print, broadcast and digital space. One of South Asia's leading strategic analysts, Gokhale has moved on from conventional media to become an independent media entrepreneur running three niche digital platforms—BharatShakti, StratNewsGlobal and Interstellar—besides undertaking consultancy and training workshops in communications for military institutions, corporates and individuals. Now better known for his conflict coverage and strategic analyses, Gokhale has lived and reported from India’s North-east for 23 years between 1983 and 2006, been on the ground at Kargil in the summer of 1999 and also brought us live coverage from Sri Lanka’s Eelam War IV between 2006-2009. An alumni of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii, Gokhale now writes, lectures and analyses security and strategic matters in Indo-Pacific and travels regularly to US, Europe, Australia, South and South-East Asia to take part in various seminars and conferences. Gokhale is also a popular visiting faculty at India’s Defence Services Staff College, the three war colleges, India's National Defence College, College of Defence Management and the IB’s intelligence school.