Boeing F-18A Super Hornet Fighter Jet
Company has been looking for pockets of productivity globally and India offers a pretty compelling proposition especially for a highly engineered product like ours, said Pratyush Kumar, President, Boeing India.
With the draft aviation policy looking to provide a major boost to maintenance and repair facility in India, aviation giants like Boeing are very glad indeed it’s the Indian defence space that the US giant is gunning for.
Speaking exclusively to CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan, Pratyush Kumar, President, Boeing India said the company is eagerly waiting for the defence offset policy before going all out to increase their presence in India. “We think that the focus on Make in India has really captured the imaginations of defence companies specially ours, to do more here,” he said.
When asked what he would like in terms of clarity from the policy, he said, Make in India is good for us because it is win-win proposition but our customers want more for less -- they want more capabilities, more range, more performance for less etc.
He added that the company has been looking for pockets of productivity globally and India offers a pretty compelling proposition especially for a highly engineered product like ours in which the broad and deep capability of India's engineering workforce is quite helpful.
According to him there are areas where the company can actually manufacture in India, which would not only be good for India but would also make them more globally competitive.
He said they were also waiting for more clarity from the ministry of defence on the offset policy where there has been lot of ongoing dialogues.
Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview:
A: .... (Starts in the middle of the answer) We think that the focus on Make in India has really captured the imaginations of defence companies specially ours to do more here.
Q: What does it mean when you say to do more here and what is it that you would be looking for in terms of additional clarity because in terms of proposed policy changes we hope that DPP will be DPP 2015 and wont spill over onto 2016. The Defence minister has said that he believes the policy will be out before the end of the year. What is it that you would like in terms of clarity?
A: I think couple of things. One is that Make in India is good for us because it is win-win proposition. Our customers want more for less. They want more capabilities, more range, more performance for less. So, we are looking for pockets of productivity globally and India offers a pretty compelling proposition specially for a highly engineered product like ours in which the broad and deep capability of India's engineering workforce is quite helpful. So, we think there are areas where we can actually manufacture in India which will be good for India and it will be good for us to make us more globally competitive.
Secondly in terms of policy there has been lot of ongoing dialogue on the offset policy per se under DPP and we are eagerly awaiting more clarifications on that from minister of defence. We are waiting to see what comes out.
