America
US, India collaboration in defence exciting: Richard Verma
US Ambassador to India Richard Verma has termed as "exciting" the joint
research and development and co-production by the US and India in the
defence sector.
Delivering a talk at the Indian School of
Business (ISB) here Monday night, he said lot of smaller deals and
collaborations were happening in the sector.
On his first visit
to Hyderabad after taking over as the ambassador last month, Verma said
US companies here were employing several hundred thousand workers, and
were involved in every sector of the economy.
He said the joint
ventures including the cutting-edge defense projects were particularly
exciting. "Who would have thought part of the US president's helicopter
would be assembled here," he asked referring to US helicopter
manufacturer Sikorsky's joint venture with Tata Advanced Systems for
manufacture of cabins for the company's helicopters.
Sikorsky's S-92 helicopters are used by VVIPs across the globe including the US president.
Referring
to his visit to Bengaluru last week for the Aero India show, Verma said
63 American companies participated, the most from any country. He said
he was impressed with the number of US companies, from the very large to
the start-ups, that were already collaborating in India in the
aerospace and defense sectors.
He noted that during President
Barack Obama's visit to India last month, they announced four pathfinder
projects and two working groups - one on aircraft carriers and the
other jet engine technology - under the Defense Technology and Trade
Initiative.
"Who would have believed such cooperation in defence was possible even a couple of years ago," asked the ambassador.
He pointed out that defence sales have gone up from zero to $10 billion in a decade.
Stating
that visit to Hyderabad is his seventh trip outside Delhi in seven
weeks, Verma said he was able to see first-hand the renewed enthusiasm
and confidence in the economy, the great potential for US-India business
collaboration, and the positive spin-off effects that are possible in
both countries.
Referring to his visit to the new facility of US
car maker Ford in Gujarat, he said spread over 450 acres it would
produce state of the art vehicles for Indian and the Asian markets. He
said the facility would not only be good for workers in Gujarat, but
also for workers in Detroit and beyond.
Verma said he along with
Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Pune for inauguration of GE's new
advanced manufacturing facility, where four different product lines
would be operated from the same plant.
The ambassador said while
the manufactured part may be from the Pune plant, it was likely that
engineers in Pittsburgh or elsewhere in America helped contribute to the
final design, its functionality, and its distribution.