Make in India event is a great opportunity to showcase our ability: Baba Kalyani, Bharat Forge CMD

In an interview to ET Now Baba Kalyani, CMD, Bharat Forge, said Make in India event in Mumbai is a great opportunity to showcase their ability to people from outside.

ET Now: Make in India event is happening for the first time in Mumbai? What does it mean for local group like you?

Baba Kalyani: It is an amazing event and that it is happening in Maharashtra makes it even more important for people like us. If anywhere manufacturing can really blossom, it is in the state of Maharashtra. We have an amazing leadership in the state with Devendra Fadnavis as our chief minister. The CM with amazing colleagues he has in his ministry, the whole system is geared up for taking our PM's dream of Make in India forward. What you are seeing here is tremendous amount of interest.

For companies like us, it gives an opportunity to showcase our capabilities not only to our potential customers here, but even to people from abroad who come here for this event. We are a company that exports more than 60% of our products to all over the world. Our markets for defence are primarily in India but other products that we make for automotive, for industrial applications, we have lot of customers outside. The whole philosophy is if people start understanding that India can produce high quality products competitively and that we have the best world class technology in place, more and more things will start happening here. That is what we are showcasing.

ET Now: Your group was one of the first to move into defence area. Now we all know 49% is a reality, what does this mean for a group like you in terms of business and roadmap?

Baba Kalyani: I think 49% FDI is an enabler for the defence production sector in India to grow very rapidly. Companies like us have joined up with three or four companies from outside to form joint ventures. We are doing work on our own.