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I am an analog, slide-rule kind of guy.
I am a self-taught water skier and wind surfer.
You cannot make an aircraft without forged components.
I give strong advice, but I don't expect it to be followed.
If my strength is technology, financial structuring is my son's skill.
Which country in the world has the kind of talent India has in numbers?
India is the second biggest defence procurer in the world after the U.S.
Challenges give me a kick. The day I stop getting challenges, I would quit.
I am a very hands-on person, and I like to be involved in driving my business.
In the U.S., we didn't have scale, and without scale, it's difficult to operate.
Prior to 2001, hardly any company in North America or Europe would buy from India.
In 2014, we have some new activities and new order wins in the non-automotive space.
Our company is very diversified, both in terms of geography and in terms of products.
I had my own motor boat which we would take to Khadakvasla, but that was 40 years ago.
We can reorient our products and business strategy because we are an agile organisation.
It's the adventure, the adrenaline-flowing, risk-taking in outdoor activities that attracts me.
The year 2013 has been very difficult, with a lot of headwinds in almost every region and every business.
I am able to compete not because my labour is cheap, but because I can use technology better than others.
We should have an inclusive growth model in India. Agro-interest is also as important as industrial interest.
We believe in the vision of 'Make in India,' and our proposed joint venture with Rafael is a step in this direction.
If India has to achieve exponential growth, it would have to be on the back of strong growth in the manufacturing sector.
We have got into Indian railways and are trying to get into the railway locomotive business in Europe and the United States.
We are working with the power industry all over the world. We are meeting customers in aerospace and getting them to tour our plants.
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.
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.
The most important part of any acquisition is your ability to culturally integrate the people in the companies you acquire and your company.
We book our exports forward for more than a year, and so we have a fixed rate. We do not get the spot rate that we see in the market every day.
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.
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.
The commodity price easing really does not play too much role in our margins because our basic raw material - steel - is not really a commodities engineering steel.
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.
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.
With liberalisation, Indian industry gained international exposure because of which it became imperative for companies to rework their strategies to become globally competitive.
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.
India is still considered a preferred destination for many multinationals to manufacture cost-competitive high-technology products for domestic consumption as well as for global demand.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Import and substituting imports with domestic production are a big opportunity. With a devaluation of the rupee, imports get expensive, and for Indian manufacturers, this creates a huge opportunity.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Our strategy should be based on indigenisation and import substitution. The government must provide opportunities for domestic companies to participate in sectors in which the country continues to depend on imports.
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.
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 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.
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.
The Indian business has largely grown on the back of exports. The domestic markets, as far as our Indian business is concerned, actually have contracted because of the contraction in the medium and heavy commercial vehicle space.