Hyderabad : Giving a boost to ‘Make in India’ initiative, Boeing and Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) signed a framework agreement to collaborate in aerospace and defense manufacturing and potential integrated systems development opportunities, including unmanned aerial vehicles. The companies intend to access markets jointly for products and platforms developed together by Boeing and TASL, said a statement by TASL.
The agreement was signed by Shelley Lavender, president of Boeing Military Aircraft and Sukaran Singh, managing director and chief executive officer of TASL, here at the Aerospace Special Economic Zone, Adibatla, where TASL has four units.
TASL, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, is already on contract to manufacture aerostructures for Boeing’s CH-47 Chinook and AH-6i helicopters. A significant player in global aerospace market, it has partners like Boeing, Ruag, Cobham, Pilatus, Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky and Airbus.
“As we step into our 100th year in business, a new aerospace partnership with India is the perfect milestone to accelerate the momentum we have generated for making in India,” said Pratyush Kumar, president for Boeing India.
The government is in the process of clearing a contract worth over USD 2.5 billion for 22 Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy-lift choppers.
“This framework agreement is the result of the world-class competencies of TASL as well as the vendor eco-system it has helped establish in India. It gives us an opportunity to explore the massive potential in India for aerospace manufacturing and make the investments required to grow the industry,” said S. Ramadorai, chairman of TASL.
TASL’s development and production facilities are spread over Hyderabad and Delhi. With 450,000 square feet space, the facilities have 1,800 member strong team. The capabilities include the assembly and integration of a complete aircraft. It has India’s largest private sector integrated detailed part manufacturing facility for aircraft and helicopters.
The units at Hyderabad include a joint venture with Sikorsky. TASL also has a joint venture with Lockheed Martin to manufacture the empennage and centre wing box for the C-130 J aircraft. A dedicated facility is under construction for the Pilatus PC 12 Green Aircraft. The first delivery is scheduled by mid-2016. Another dedicated facility is under construction for assembly of wings and fuselage of Dornier 228 NG Aero structure components. The first delivery is expected in second quarter of 2015.
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Nano was made to reach out to people, but never has: Tata
Chennai : Admitting that Tata Group made a “bunch of mistakes” in the sales and marketing of Nano, iconic business leader Ratan Tata said branding it as the ‘cheapest’ rather than most affordable car was the greatest flaw that distanced people from it.
“Nano was made to reach out to people, (but) it never has,” Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus said during in an interaction with students.
“…people did not want to be seen in the cheapest car and I think that has been our greatest deficiency that has disenabled the car to perform what it was trying to do,” he said. He said Nano was designed by a group which had an average age of 25 or 26 and added that it was an exhilarating exercise of trying to produce an affordable car that could be purchased for a lakh of rupees. The launch of the vehicle was success far beyond expectation, he said.
“Unfortunately, the lessons we learnt were perhaps to look more carefully at a situation where we had an aggressive head of government , somebody talk of Bengal Tiger, but it is (actually a) Bengal Tigress,” he said in apparent reference to his company’s decision to pull out its proposal to locate the Nano manufacturing plant at Singur in West Bengal due to political opposition.
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