Top executives from Tata, L&T, Bharat Forge to lead defence strategy panels

NEW DELHI: Top executives from Tata, Larsen & Toubro and Bharat Forge are among those who will lead the panels being convened by the defence ministry for suggestions on its strategic partnership model – a move to allow private investments in mega defence manufacturing projects.
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Days after the defence ministry sent a convening order to industry bodies like Ficci, CII and Assocham, they have appointed top executives to head the five subgroups for which recommendations have been sought.

Two major defence sector companies —Mahindra and Reliance Defence —are not heading any of the panels while MKU, a company that specialises in ballistic protection devices, and Alpha Design, which recently tied up with Adani Group for a defence project, have been selected.

Several officials that ET spoke with said there is a scramble among the private sector to ensure that their executives are chosen to be a part of the subgroups, each of which is likely to have 15 industry representatives.

However, given the large interest of the private sector in what is being seen as a sunrise sector, industry bodies are finding it hard to accommodate all requests.

The panel on aircraft and helicopters manufacturing is being led by Sukaran Singh, CEO of Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) that is presently working on a project to replace the Avro transport fleet of the Indian Air Force. Industry house CII is in charge of this panel.

Industry veteran JD Patil, who heads defence for L&T, will lead the panel on submarine construction that is being handled by Ficci. Rajinder Bhatia, CEO for defence and aerospace at Bharat Forge, is leading the CII panel for macro issues like selection of partners and criteria for evaluation.

In what has come as a surprise to several industry executives who spoke with ET, the panel on smart ammunition production will be led by Neeraj Gupta who heads MKU. Similarly, Col (retd) HS Shankar, chairman at Alpha Design, has been chosen for the panel on armoured fighting vehicles.

Companies like Mahindra and Reliance are expected to have some representation in the subpanels.

While the defence ministry has given the industry bodies just 10 days to come up with recommendations, it is expected that a deadline relaxation will be requested due to logistic issues in convening a pan-industry panel. Defence service officers too will be appoint members to each of the panels – two star officers from the three services as well as representatives from research body DRDO.