India needs to firm up stand on capacity creation: Boeing

Promising an aviation manufacturing ecosystem, US aircraft-maker Boeing, which has for long been losing defence-related orders from India to the likes of French Rafale, on Tuesday said it is up to the government to decide if it wants to continue imports or build capacity locally.

“India has to make a decision whether it wants to keep buying from France or wants to create industrial capacity. At the end of the day, India has to decide, from creating an industrial capacity point of view, who is the right partner,” said Boeing India president Pratyush Kumar on the sidelines of the ‘Make in India Week’.

He was responding to a query on New Delhi placing an order of 36 fighter jets with French defence major Rafale earlier in a multi-billion dollar deal. The terms of the deal also involve domestic assembly over a period of time. For long, India has been sourcing from Europe and Russia.

“What we’re offering is a different proposition to create an entire ecosystem for aerospace, not just the final assembly of aircraft,” Kumar said.

His comments follow a recent announcement from another European major Saab that it is ready to go the whole hog on local manufacturing in the country.

Noting that India has over dependence on foreign technologies, he said: “If you want to break that cycle and grow industrial capacity, you’ve to think differently.” 

On the difference that Boeing can bring to the table, he said: “How do you make different components, the avionics, the systems... and then integrate them, which is our differentiated offering.” 

He cited the American experience of manufacturing the Super Hornets, saying over 2,000 companies from 44 states contribute to the process. 

Kumar also claimed that over the past 14 months, the company has more than doubled its sourcing from the country, but refused to put a figure to it. It is estimated that both Boeing and Airbus source parts like fuselage, doors and other spare parts worth $1 billion each from India.