LIVE: Industrialist Baba Kalyani At R Defence Forces First Conclave 2026 | Forging The Future

76% of that production is contributed to by our PSUs, 24% by the private sector. Over time, Drachamandri has also mentioned that we do want to see this become a more hybrid diversified production base with a roughly 50/50 split between the private and the public sector. That would be a balanced way of developing a hybrid large industrial base in this country. As I mentioned earlier, for decades, our defense manufacturing ecosystem was built around licensed production models of different types. Increasingly, today we are able to develop indigenous platforms and systems and we have evolved from a technology absorption phase to a technology creation phase today. Examples like the light combat aircraft that I mentioned earlier or the ATAGS, the advanced towed artillery gun system which our sponsor Bharat Forge is currently fulfilling the order for, the Paka multiple rocket launcher, the Brahmos and Akash missiles, various other things, our INS Vikrant, our indigenously designed and constructed aircraft carrier — these are all examples of technology creation and not just absorption. Besides these flagship platforms, Indian industry is now developing AESA radars, electronic warfare systems, AI-enabled systems, autonomous drone and counter-drone systems, many others, and some of them have found markets outside our borders, particularly things like the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile for which we've recently signed a deal with the Indonesians after having earlier formed up deals with Philippines and thereafter with Vietnam, as well as the Akash air defense system, the Paka, the Dhruv aircraft. These are some of the stellar examples of platforms that have found acceptability globally.

Increasingly, India is contributing design capability, engineering excellence and intellectual property in this contested area. We've reached a milestone in defense exports recently from 686 crores in FY 2013-14 to a record 38,000 odd crores in 2025-26, and the target set before us by Raksha Mantri of achieving 50,000 crores by 2030 is well within our reach. We should be able to not only achieve but overachieve this figure. Today, 145 Indian defense companies are exporting defense products compared to 128 exporters in the previous financial year, and the public sector has increasingly also emerged as an equal partner in this surge in our exports.

Let me turn to a little bit about DRDO, which I always find it a little strange when I'm introduced as the chairman DRDO because I hope this is going to be a temporary assignment. But I do want to say that DRDO is increasingly playing the role of ensuring that this large defense industrial ecosystem that has developed is provided the technology, the design, the testing facilities that it needs. There is no other agency in government or in the private sector which does R&D. The fact is that DRDO is the only one, more or less; I wouldn't call it a monopoly but it is de facto monopolistic in the sense that they are the only ones doing serious R&D in this sector. What they've now increasingly done, however, and this model I do want to spend a couple of minutes on, is the DCPP model, a development-cum-production partner model. Under that model, many companies, many private sector companies as well, including companies like Bharat Forge, have secured significant technology transfers. And these technology transfers are not just on paper. Today we have reached a stage where these have been converted into actual contracts from the Indian army and from the other services through a very demanding process of testing and, as you know, our procurement procedure is fairly difficult. Having qualified through that, having secured large contract orders particularly for the ATAGS, for the Pakas, for the close quarter carbine which is a small arm system, all of these show that we are now, DRDO in a sense has contributed to the industrial defense industry in this country reaching a critical mass and also support the private sector through the fruits of its research and development. It is also now increasingly through its 15 industry academia centers of excellence covering 82 critical technology domains increasingly enabling Indian industry to manufacture advanced defense systems. This contribution of DRDO has led, according to the figure that I saw last, almost seven lakh crores cumulatively in orders and production over the last few decades. It shows that increasingly the technologies that DRDO is developing are no longer confined to the laboratories. It is finding its place in our defense industrial production as well.

I think I'll end here. Let me end by saying that our defense transformation is ultimately a story of confidence, the confidence in our scientists, our own innovators and our industry, and above all in our ability to shape our own strategic future. This government under Prime Minister Modi does not distinguish between the private and the public sector. Every Indian company will be supported equally, whether on the supply side through improved faster licensing procedures and improved ease of doing business, and on the demand side equal opportunities when it comes to defense procurements in a single buyer market. Not only that, we are walking the talk. We've ensured that for example for the AMA program, as you would have noted, our leading public sector aerospace company for technical reasons could not qualify for that tender. We have one pure private sector company and two private-public consortia that are now left in that race, and we intend to — this is a leap of faith in many ways for us in our faith in the private sector also delivering these complex systems, and I'm sure that they will live up to that faith not only with that platform but with many others. In future, as I've mentioned in other public fora, from the DRDO side we will open up at least the tactical types of missiles, the conventional missiles also increasingly to the private sector to ensure that these long-range precision standoff weapons that are increasingly required in large numbers in today's warfare are provided and made available to our armed forces. As we move towards Viksit Bharat 2047, our ambition is clear: the defense vision of India centers around preserving our strategic autonomy and making India a global leader in defense technology, innovation and advanced manufacturing. This will demand sustained investment in research, continuous innovation, deeper collaboration between government, the armed forces and academia, and an unwavering commitment to excellence. India has embarked upon that journey with purpose, and that is why today we are able to refer to Bharat as a defense powerhouse. Let us build an India that is innovative in thought, self-reliant in capability and globally trusted in defense technology. A Bharat that truly stands as a defense powerhouse. Thank you and Jai Hind.

Mr. Singh, to please stay on the stage, and I invite Republic Media Network editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and Mr. Baba Kalyani, chairperson and MD of Bharat Forge Limited, to please come on to the stage and facilitate the defense secretary, Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh. We appreciate you taking our time for this keynote address and sharing your view of the journey and what is in store for the future of defense manufacturing and India's role with Atmanirbharata at this end.

The Indus Water Treaty itself needs to be renegotiated. It is a highly unequal treaty. India was pressurized to sign under American pressure. But I'm afraid if you open this raw wound, then you are asking for deep trouble. Operation Sindhur was just a trailer. After the mass casualty terror strike in Poonch as part of a deterrent action, as part of punitive measures, India had held the Indus water treaty in abeyance till such time as Pakistan expresses contrition, regret for its actions and gives us proof positive that it will no longer engage in acts of mass terror, mass casualty terror strikes against India. Till date, it's almost well over a year since Operation Sindhur. Till date we have not had a word of contrition, of regret, of turning a new leaf, of any assurance that Pakistan will not carry out any further terror strikes against India. To the contrary, absolutely to the contrary, what we are concerned about is the start of a new information warfare narrative by Pakistan's ISI in collusion with its American CIA partners, which is trying to create justification for another mass casualty Pakistani strike. This time possibly directed against the water resources of India. The Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Jaish-e-Mohammad have been...

With Baba Kalyani, a person I respect tremendously because of his commitment to this area. There are many companies for whom defense is one of the things they do, but for Baba Kalyani, he has done what generations of policymakers had said was impossible: build a world-class private defense artillery industry from an auto-forging base. This requires commitment. Today, Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited, KSSL, has co-developed the ATAGS howitzer with DRDO, won the largest share of India's first major artillery buy since Bofors in 1987, and is now exporting Indian guns to Europe, exporting Indian guns to the US supply chain and West Asia. Ladies and gentlemen, therefore, Baba Kalyani and Kalyani embodies the private sector's arrival at the heart of Atmanirbhar Bharat. For that, I congratulate you, sir. Let's have a round of applause for that alone. This is truly, truly incredible good work you've done, sir. I want to start by asking you to respond a little bit to the first comments we saw from the secretary of defense, who also wears the DRDO cap and the Raksha Mantri. I saw in their introductory comments a clear commitment towards Atmanirbhar Bharat. It was not an embellishment, it was a strategic goal. Your thoughts on what you heard from them at the start.

Now in 2011, nobody could have ever believed — we must be a little candid about what has changed here — because the big issue is trust. We have always had this belief that it's easier to buy than to build, and why take the trouble? And then there are all these qualitative dimensions which are brought in, and that's why we've lost a lot of time. Nobody in 2011, 2010 could believe that a private forging company like yours would be supplying — and you had zero defense pedigree, sorry to point that out but it's the reality — you had zero defense pedigree, but you had intent, intention, and a spirit of nationalism that you could build artillery for the Indian army. Now you are 14, 15, 16 years later, you are exporting guns to Europe and the US supply chain, right? And our own army is about to, I hope, place a firm order. What is the gap? Why is it that you have global validation, and what is it about domestic trust that we need to address? Do we need global validation before domestic trust? It's an issue we have.

That's very true.

Look at the sheer power that stage one is producing. With this, we have two of our major prime mission objectives completed, which was successful ignition and stage clearance.

That's right. And we're coming up on max Q now, which is the period of maximum aerodynamic pressure, where the vehicle faces its largest aerodynamic loads as it flies through this zone at Mach 1.5 at an altitude of nearly 9 km.

That's right. We are at a downrange distance of 22 km with an altitude of 34 km. And on your screens right now are excellent onboard camera views from the vehicle.

And we can also see quite nominal chamber pressure values on the MCC screen.

The vehicle is currently at an altitude of 50 km.

This is quite a major achievement for the nation, with the vehicle successfully separating stage one and the ignition of stage two as well.

The vehicle is at an altitude of 89 km traveling at 2.6 km/s. Of course, our target velocity for today is 7.6.

S2 performance normal.

We've just heard callout that the S2 performance or the stage 2 performance is nominal.

Pur baat or niji antariksh yatra.

This vehicle has crossed 100 km of altitude, which is the notion of edge of space, and we have reached space, guys. Congratulations. One is in space. And we've had callouts of separation of the payload fairing. We have successful payload fairing separation.

It's nearly at an altitude of 120 km and the protective fairing is no longer required and has been cleanly separated from the launch.

That's right. We've had successful ignition of stage three. The vehicle is currently at 157 km above the earth's surface. It is 355 km downrange traveling at nearly 4 km/s. Now will switch over from SH to Port Blair and PDA to Bour.

And as you can see on your screens, we have near exact following of the intended trajectory. The two dotted lines on your screen essentially indicate the current performance of the vehicle and it closely matches with prediction.

This is on your screen onboard from stage three. What you see is the rocket plume and the nozzle and earth at home. What a beautiful view.

S3 performance normal.

That's right. We've had callout that the stage three performance is nominal.

Plus 5 minutes.

So, stage three has a propellant loading of 2.5 tons and we've had burnout of the stage 3 motor as planned at plus 5 minutes.

Yes, we've gotten confirmation that S3 has burnt out and now we're entering a planned coast period. Something that lasts for 140 seconds, it's called combined coasting.

Combined coasting is normal.

Right. So we've got callout that the combined coast is nominal. This will last for roughly 140 seconds where stage three is not producing thrust but it's connected to the vehicle and it's going to coast as a single body. All of this is done to manage the altitude of the vehicle and also control where the stage will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere before splashing in international waters in a safe and planned manner. And jubilant views from the launch control center where the teams are extremely elated and excited.

As we can see on our screens right now, it's really amazing to see that Vikram 1 as of now is going along its intended trajectory exactly as expected. Our plots are really overlapping. The predicted velocities and the current flight velocities are exactly matching. And aren't you guys speechless right now?

I mean, yeah.

That's right. We are approaching another point wherein S3 will separate.

S3 is separated.

And you see wonderful views of S3 separating. And now we have combined coasting has ended and stage 4 will now coast on its own for the next 130 seconds. So stage 4 will now fly on its own essentially.

The control thrusters on the OAM will be continuously turning on and off to maintain the attitude of the stage, making sure that it is pointing the right way. This also ensures that the antennas can maintain connection with the ground station and the satellite can be pointing in the right direction.

That's right. One unique thing that has been done during separation is we've essentially fired all four of our ramen mini thrusters to sort of push stage four away from stage three, and that just sort of guarantees that there is some minimum separation between the two.

S4 ignited.

And we've heard callout that S4 or stage 4 has ignited successfully.

Will last for more than 6 minutes. During this phase, the vehicle will steadily accelerate from about 6.68 km/s to nearly 7.64 km/s, delivering the precise velocity needed to achieve its planned 450 x 450 km circular lower low Earth orbit at a 60° inclination.