Tata Group Focuses On Defense And Aerospace

Mumbai: Tata Group is likely to expand its Group Executive Council (GEC) to include a new member with responsibility for defense and aerospace. 

Mukund Rajan, Tata’s brand custodian and council member said: “Defense is an important focus for the group and in the future we would not rule out having someone to look after this segment.” “As reflected in the cluster approach for the defense and aerospace sector, several of these companies already work collaboratively to provide convergent defense solutions and thus meet multiple requirements of customers,” he further added.

The company also claimed that its revenue from defense and aerospace business is expected to have a 7.5 per cent annual increase to Rs 2,650 crore by the end of the current financial year.

Defense is one of the 25 thrust areas under the NDA government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. It has also eased foreign investment norms to 49 percent through automatic route.

Vernon Noronha, the vice-president of Tata Motors said: “The government has increased its pace of floating request of proposals for defense procurement”. He added that the follow-up process behind each project and the field trials of arms and combat vehicles are also being expedited. He also said that Defense has the potential to contribute 15 percent to Tata Motors’s revenue from the current three percent if the company managed to get the Indian Army’s Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV) order.

Tata Motors, in partnership with the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), has also designed and developed India’s first amphibious infantry combat vehicle ‘TATA Kestrel’.