And as the NDA government completes 12 years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India finds itself at a crucial juncture, emerging as one of the world's fastest-growing major economies, building manufacturing capabilities, strengthening infrastructure, and increasingly positioning itself as a global alternative in supply chain and defense production. To discuss India's transformation journey, the opportunities that lie ahead, and how India Inc. is preparing for the next phase of growth, we are now joined by Mr. Baba Kalyani, CMD at Bharat Forge, who is now joining us. Mr. Kalyani, good afternoon and thank you so much for taking your time out and joining us here on ET Now. And you have witnessed India's industrial evolution over several decades. How different is India's manufacturing ecosystem today compared to what it was back then, 12 years back in 2014?
Well, first of all, let me take this opportunity to thank you for being on your channel, and the opportunity to give my heartfelt congratulations to the honorable Prime Minister for completing 12 years of glorious service to the nation, and wishing him all the very best for the next many, many more years for his leadership. The last 12 years, if you look at the 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, let's say, status of India and Indian industry.
The second one that came four years later was the Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign, which basically said that in the sector of defense, we need to become independent, Atmanirbhar. We need to develop our own technologies and produce our own products. The third major achievement was the creation of infrastructure—the number of roads, ports, airports, and the whole ecosystem for connectivity, which is a very important part of any nation if you want to grow the economy. And I think that was done extremely well and at very good speed.
And the fourth major change is bringing the whole electronics industry back on the table. We missed this chance in the '80s. Now we are back on the electronic industry roadmap with a big boom, with semiconductor manufacturing, iPhone manufacturing, many EMS companies coming up, and all kinds of stuff that is happening around electronics. So, I think this is great. On the softer side, he created a whole ecosystem of startups, which have created a lot of young people creating new technologies, and many of them who became unicorns. He also created a lot of startups in the area of defense through the iDEX programs. So, there are many, many things that have come through the honorable Prime Minister's policies, which were implemented in the last few years.
So, you know, all in all, very good. We are in the manufacturing sector. I have traveled with the Prime Minister for the last many years, right from 2015, his first trip to Japan, then to Moscow, then to the UK, then to Germany, France, and everywhere I have seen he has a unique way of putting Bharat first. And with that, whether it's getting investments, getting technology, opening the markets, getting products, you know, that's been his philosophy. And that is what has helped the Indian manufacturing industry, people like us at least, to grow and become much bigger than what we were in 2014. And I think a stage is set. And if you look at the defense sector today, where we are also involved in every way, we are making platforms. The defense sector is now getting the private sector even to build the fifth-generation fighter aircrafts. So, what a major change. I mean, who would think 12 years ago that this was ever possible? So, hats off to the honorable Prime Minister's policies. Hats off to the way he has implemented it. And kudos to him.
Okay, and manufacturing clearly has seen a big boost over the last 12 years, but what are the three biggest bottlenecks in your opinion India still needs to address when it comes to manufacturing?
You know, the biggest bottlenecks that I see going forward, let's say the next 7 years—actually, the honorable Prime Minister has put the map for what a Viksit Bharat should look like in 2047. But let's leave that aside for the time being. Let's take the next 7-8 years. The whole change in technology that is taking place because of application of AI and the speed at which AI is growing, the trillions of dollars that are being invested by these large companies in the US and also elsewhere in the world including in India, is going to create a very different spectrum of technologies, a very different way of doing things. And for that, we need two things: we need qualified people who understand the use of AI in every space, and especially in manufacturing because India wants to become a manufacturing nation, a product nation; and we need to invest a lot of money in R&D, actually the private sector. I think this is going to be very, very essential for this country to achieve what it wants to achieve.
Let's also talk about defense indigenization, and that has been a major policy focus for the government over the last 12 years. How would you assess India's progress in the defense sector over the last 12 years? And what in your opinion could the next 12 years look like?
You know, I think 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, you know, companies like us and many other companies—the Tata Group, L&T, Mahindra, many others—are building defense platforms. And the private sector never built defense platforms before. We are building the ATAGS platform. We're building the mounted gun platform. We have got the largest order of carbines from the Indian Army, 250,000 carbines. We have exported last year almost 1,200 crores worth of defense products to Europe. So, there's a lot of activity in defense. We make combat vehicles. We just supplied the tracked FICV and the wheeled 8x8 FICV with a 30 mm gun with anti-tank missiles and all kinds of gizmos to the Indian Army for trials now.
So, there is tremendous amount of activity that is going on in this sector. And okay, it takes time because in defense, you make a platform, you supply it, the Army has to try it out, there's a rigorous process of trial, and only after that, if you succeed in the trial, you can get an order. But we are very confident that the level, the kind of products we are building—and these are all indigenous products with the help of DRDO and our own engineers—is just amazing. I think they are products which are as good or sometimes even better than what you see in countries like Germany or countries like Korea or other countries where we think they make the best product. So, I think give India a little more time, 5 more years, and I think we will be there in a big way.
