Visitors at the Global Investors’ Meet at Palace Grounds in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN
Top global aerospace and defence companies that are currently participating at the four-day Global Investors’ Meet: Invest Karnataka 2025, expressed their keenness to scale up their product, equipment, and services sourcing from Karnataka and India.
For instance, senior officials of Airbus, Rolls Royce, Safran, a French multinational aerospace, defence and security corporation headquartered in Paris, and U.K.-based Collins Aerospace, said that they were looking to significantly scale up their sourcing from India.
According to the Aerospace India Association, despite a quantum growth in the global aviation market, India’s current aerospace exports are worth as little as $2 billion, indicating huge growth potential for the sector in the near to long term future.
Speaking at a panel discussion on “India at the Core: Shaping the Future of Global A&D Sourcing” here, the companies sounded bullish on India’s prospects in the global aerospace and defence supply chain.
Michel Narchi, Head of International Operations, Airbus, said the level of maturity India has gained in this sector in the past few years was significant. He further said Airbus was keen to capitalise on the existing partnership it has with Karnataka/India.
Growth in five years
“If I compare where we were five years back, where we have reached today on the supply chain part, this partnership has doubled the volume in the past five years. Today, we can say that India is contributing more than a billion Euros in the overall supply chain of Airbus,” Mr. Narchi said.
Jean-Noel Mahieu, EVP Operations, Safran Electronics and Defence, also spoke about strengthening partnership with India. Huw Morgan, Senior Vice-President, Aerospace Procurement, Rolls Royce, said: “We are looking to double our sourcing in region over the next five years,” Mr. Morgan. Savyasachi Srinivas, Vice-President, Engineering, at Collins Aerospace, said Collins did about $500 million of exports from India annually and he anticipated it to significantly increase over the next few years.
According to Srinivasan Dwarakanath, Director General, Aerospace India Association, and former CEO & MD of Airbus India, both Boeing and Airbus have in their global market forecast stated that over the next 20 years, there is a need for more than 42,000 aircraft or new planes. India has ordered a significant number of aircraft which was also going to result in an uptick in the global supply chain, commented Mr. Dwarakanath.
Only 1% of global supply
In 2023, the value of the global aerospace supply chain was about $180 billion and by 2033 it will go up to $250 billion. In 2023, India ordered the maximum number of aircraft. Despite this, Indian aerospace supply chain currently contributes only about one per cent of the global supply chain. “This is disproportionately below the value of the import of the aircraft and components. Aerospace exports annually from India is as little as $2 billion,” Mr. Dwarakanath pointed out.
Published – February 13, 2025 09:45 pm IST