L&T, a construction giant with a long history, came into the defence business only at the turn of the 21st century, thanks to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam who roped in companies like the Tatas and L&T to build some parts in the Integrated Guided Missile Programme in the 1980s. At the beginning of this century, the government opened up licensed defence manufacturing for Indian companies. Then L&T decided to obtain defence licenses.
Since then, it has been a thrilling ride, a bit of a roller coaster, says Arun T. Ramchandani, head of L&T Defence in this chat with Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale in the latest episode of On the Shop Floor. Looking back, he says because L&T started from a core R&D base it has been able to build at least 250 products for the armed forces. About 35 of them are in serial production today. Gradually the company also got into warship construction and has made a name for itself in designing and building submarines too. Watch the full episode shot at L&T’s Talegaon complex.
