Theme: Defence | Government could act as an anchor customer to trigger the industrial ecosystem in the space domain, says Venkat Katkuri

Buoyed by rich orders of civilian and military aircraft, Airbus Defence and Aerospace said that it’s looking to increase its sourcing from India, taking it beyond the existing worth $700 million per year. Airbus also has plans to generate 2,000 more jobs in the next two years which would add to 10,000 direct and indirect placements the company is already supporting through the supply chain activities.  In this State of Economy podcast, Venkat Katkuri, Head of Airbus Defence and Space, India and South Asia, spoke to Dalip Singh about the contribution of foreign OEMS towards the Centre’s Aatmanir Bharat initiatives to reduce defence imports, working with start-ups and his company’s plans for the country. He also gave an update on the C295 military aircraft, which Airbus is co-producing with Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. The Airbus India and South Asia head appreciated the reforms brought in greater transparency to the procurement processes but suggested the government could still do more to help the sector grow.  He was also of the view that the next stage push the defence sector needed is scaling up of Indian industrial ecosystem and that, as per him, would make India competitive in the global defence market. “The government of India could act as an anchor customer to really scale up the industrial ecosystem and to mature these state-of-the-art technologies to take it to a global level,” he observed.  (Host: Dalip Singh, Producer: Nabodita Ganguly, V Nivedita) ______________________ About the State Of The Economy podcast India’s economy has been hailed as the bright spot amid the general gloom that seems to have enveloped the rest of the world. But several of its sectors still stutter about even while others seem set to fire on all cylinders. To help you make sense of the bundle of contradictions that the country is,   businessline brings you podcasts with experts ranging from finance and marketing to technology and start-ups.