NEW DELHI: For a company that’s a supplier to OEMs across the globe, Bharat Forge has been hit hard by the Coronavirus but the company’s boss Baba Kalyani sees an opportunity in the pandemic, echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for a self-reliant India. This, coupled with the defence reforms, should be the way forward, according to him. There’s an able team at the MoD and it should ensure quick implementation of the policy changes, he hopes. And while ‘Make in india’ is the mantra, the government should put in place due systems to safeguard knowledge property, he told BharatShakti.in Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale. On indigenization, Kalyani says if it can happen in the U.S. defence industry 1in the 1970s, there’s no reason it cannot be replicated here in India now. My personal dream is to make a jet engine for the Indian Air Force, he reveals, adding that his company cannot do it alone but a consortium of 5-7 Indian companies (both public and private sector) in a mission mode can.
