We believe in the vision of 'Make in India,' and our proposed joint venture with Rafael is a step in this direction.
— Baba Kalyani
The first reactions from Germany and German industry was quite negative. People right from the start were saying that we will steal technology and take it away and move the plant to India and use low cheap labor to compete.
I give strong advice, but I don't expect it to be followed.
Politicians said that with our cheap labour, we could be competitive in the world. Nothing could be further from the truth. We were the most uncompetitive country with that cheap labour.
If my strength is technology, financial structuring is my son's skill.
We manufacture automotive components including critical engine and axle parts for passenger cars, diesel engines and medium & heavy commercial vehicles. Till 1997, our focus was almost entirely on the domestic market with a relatively insignificant portion of revenues from exports.
You cannot make an aircraft without forged components.
India is the second biggest defence procurer in the world after the U.S.
We passionately set up a programme that we call the Indian gun programme. I challenged Colonel Bhatia, who heads our defence business, that let's build an Indian gun. There's a belief that Indian companies aren't capable of this, and we want to prove them wrong, as we did in components.
India is the most competitive manufacturing destination on this planet. If we are able to take advantage of that competitiveness for our domestic markets, this country would be humming with activity; industrial production will grow at 10-11% per year.
In business, you try to minimise risk.
I am a self-taught water skier and wind surfer.
Challenges give me a kick. The day I stop getting challenges, I would quit.
The period from 2002 to 2007 was probably our best period. We created a strategy to build global scale, footprints in each of the geographies and dramatically built our international business.
In 2006, the global economy was doing well. In India, the political and economic situation was stable. All key macroeconomic indicators reflected an economy that was in robust good health.
Indians have very good engineering capabilities, and that is why, if an industry focuses on innovation, you will have a far greater chance of success, rather than the model which is based on just being a production machine.
In 2014, we have some new activities and new order wins in the non-automotive space.
The advantage comes out of the capability of Indian engineers and the competitiveness of their capabilities and the cost at which they can create those capabilities.
So far, the general perception, including the perception in India, was that we are not capable of using high technology. They simply refused to believe an Indian can do it! I somehow was not ready to accept that this is not possible.
Which country in the world has the kind of talent India has in numbers?
We anticipate countries increasing their spending on infrastructure like railways, airports, power plants and ports. Our heavy forging plant has the capacity to cater to each of these segments.
When I returned from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972, my father was running a forging business with a turnover of Rs 3.5 crore. But I had no patience and wanted to grow the business via exports.
With liberalisation, Indian industry gained international exposure because of which it became imperative for companies to rework their strategies to become globally competitive.
Fundamentally, we have broken our aerospace business into three parts - large parts which go into the wings and fuselage, components for jet engines, and specialised structural components for landing gear.
There is a feeling within our system that defence equipment can't be made here and should be imported. I wanted to break this myth, so we spent our money and made a product to prove we have capability in this country, so don't just brush us aside.
We need to just study what other countries have done. There are examples of a strong partnership between the defence establishment and the private industry.
Prior to 2001, hardly any company in North America or Europe would buy from India.
I have what is probably the largest big bike collection in the city: a Fat Boy, a sportser Harley Davidson and two Yamahas. All these are 1200cc-plus bikes. Riding these bikes is something I still do and some trekking as well.
We are a heterogeneous society. We have to accept that. Growth has to be such that the most backward sections also benefit from it. Otherwise, it will be a very imbalanced growth.
If India has to achieve exponential growth, it would have to be on the back of strong growth in the manufacturing sector.
India has the capability to create a fairly extensive defence manufacturing capability in many areas, and as a country and as an industry, we have matured in terms of technology and capability to make this happen.
I don't think one party has a bad vision over the other party. I have no doubts that every Indian and every Indian political leadership would like to see this country get to a much better level. We would all like to see inclusive growth.
I am able to compete not because my labour is cheap, but because I can use technology better than others.
The year 2013 has been very difficult, with a lot of headwinds in almost every region and every business.
The most important part of any acquisition is your ability to culturally integrate the people in the companies you acquire and your company.
I am an analog, slide-rule kind of guy.
If somebody told me you'd be a one and a half billion dollar company and be the largest in the world, I wouldn't have believed it myself.
We can reorient our products and business strategy because we are an agile organisation.
One of the criteria for a global company is that it should have a manufacturing presence in multiple countries and should not only be an exporter.
I am a very hands-on person, and I like to be involved in driving my business.
At the Bangalore air show, we got a contract from Boeing for supplying structural components, and we are already supplying jet engine components to Rolls Royce. Both these are titanium-based, not steel components.
We've made two products; one is a 155 mm 52-calibre gun with self-propelling and towing capability. This is a field gun - the mainstay of the Indian army like the Bofors guns. Our gun is similar but of a longer range. That was 39 calibre; this is 52. The calibre denotes the length of the barrel and the range.
Everywhere in the world, whether manufacturing, trade or whatever, it is controlled by one apparatus and one policy perspective. Here we have one prime minister with good intentions, and six ministries running their own empires. This creates problems including the import culture.
I am sick and tired of the process where everybody tells you that Indian companies don't have the technology and capability. We need to put money where our mouth is and make things happen, and that is what we are trying to do.
It's the adventure, the adrenaline-flowing, risk-taking in outdoor activities that attracts me.
We should have an inclusive growth model in India. Agro-interest is also as important as industrial interest.
In the U.S., we didn't have scale, and without scale, it's difficult to operate.
Subsidies on petroleum products and fertilizers should be phased out in a defined, time-bound manner. The resources that would get freed up could then be used to fund various social sector programmes in education, healthcare and other priority sectors.
Before 2000, we were unable to design a single car; all the cars were designed in Japan, Europe or somewhere else. We were just converting.
Our real focus is going to be what can we do with our existing capacities, what new things can we do, and how much more demand can we fulfil with our existing capacities.
