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Baba Kalyani

Chairman, Bharat Forge

Search every verified Baba Kalyani interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Baba Kalyani, Chairman of Bharat Forge, discussed the company's first-quarter financial results and outlook in an August 2026 interview with CNBC-TV18. He attributed a 160 basis point increase in energy costs to margin pressure, stating the company expected to recover these costs from customers and return to 27–28% margins in the second quarter. Kalyani said he did not anticipate further restructuring charges after a ₹358 crore exceptional loss related to its German operations, noting an agreement had been signed with the works council there and that the restructuring would be completed by mid-2027. He also mentioned plans for a new large-component forging facility and an aerospace facility expected to be operational by late 2026 or January 2027. In separate appearances, Kalyani spoke about Indian defence manufacturing and artificial intelligence. At the R Defence Forces First Conclave in July 2026, he discussed the shift from licensed production to indigenous technology creation, citing examples such as the ATAGS artillery system and the Vikrant aircraft carrier. He said the government under Prime Minister Modi does not distinguish between private and public sector companies in defence procurement and called for moving from "Make in India" to "Design in India and Export to the World." At a January 2026 conference on AI, Kalyani described himself as "not an AI expert" but discussed his company's use of technology in manufacturing, including work with smaller Indian firms on algorithms for underwater domain awareness. He also highlighted skill development initiatives, including a centre in Nagaland whose first 20 graduates were hired by a German company.

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Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“We are putting up a big forging facility to make those large components. We should also help our aerospace business that also will be up and ready by December January December of this year or January of 27. So this is all going to happen in the next 6 7 months.”

“We have had almost 160 basis point increase in the energy cost which we will recover from our customers and with the growth that we have as we have committed we will see better margins coming up. I mean even for the last quarter we will recover this cost increases that have taken place.”

“The point is the investment in data centers nobody knows when the payback will happen and that payback is dependent purely on the life cycle of the chip that they use. Already in India we are seeing that people who have built data centers using the H100 chip are feeling I mean losing business very rapidly because there are faster chips available who are which are coming in in the new data centers.”

“In the last 12 years, more like in the last 5 years I would say, the defense sector, at least in the private sector, has come with a bang. Earlier, the defense sector was basically the public sector ordnance factories. There was hardly any private sector involvement in the defense. But today, companies like us and many other companies that Tata Group, L&T, Mahindra, many others are building defense platforms. And we ”

“The last 12 years, if you look at 2014 to 2026, we have seen three, four major changes in terms of what has happened in India. The first one was the Prime Minister's Make in India campaign that started in 2014 December. That was a major transformation of the manufacturing status of India and Indian industry. The second one that came four years later was the Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign, which basically said that in th”

“We need to spend a lot more money on R&D than what we are spending. We as a company, by the way, spend a lot more than what you're talking about, but I think the government has also set up this new research fund of almost 1 lakh crore, which can be which is going to start being used by the private sector for R&D. But that's one area. If you don't do R&D, if you don't do development, we won't become a product nation. ”

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