India moving from one of largest importers to developing its own platforms: Boeing India President Salil Gupte

New Delhi [India], February 21 (ANI): President of Boeing India and South Asia, Salil Gupte, hailed the 'Make in India' initiative and said that New Delhi is moving from being one of the largest importers to developing its own platforms.
He said that Boeing is one of the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) that has coordinated most with India in this direction.
Gupte said that a lot of discussion at the Indus X event -- which is being held on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue 2024 -- is around co-development and co-production.
Speaking to ANI, Salil Gupte said, "Several products for defence, that are in the pipeline for co-development...Boeing has decided to specifically participate in those types of programmes, because in defence, under the 'self-reliance' theme, India is moving from being one of the largest importers of products to developing its own platforms here."
"Some of it will be done totally with Indian companies and some of it will do in partnership with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). Boeing has been one of the OEMs that has coordinated most with India," he added.
Gupte said that Boeing is exporting worth of Rs 10000 crores per annum as part of 'Make in India' programme.
"We have Rs 10000 crores per annum of sourcing that we export from India already as part of our 'Make in India' programme. And now we think that our new engineering centre in Bangalore, it is an opportunity to combine the strong engineering capability with manufacturing capability to give a fillip to the Make in India programme," he said.
The Boeing India President further said that he is expecting over 2500 aircraft to come to India over the course of the next 20 years.
"In civil aviation, we see over 2500 aircraft that will be coming in India over the next 20 years, which makes it more than 10 aircraft per month. Not just aircraft, but airlines are also growing very rapidly. Akasa Air, one of the fastest-growing airlines in history, is now going international and Air India is placing large orders in the last year as they spread their wings into long-haul flights," Gupte further said.
Gupte also reiterated US President Joe Biden's remark that the India-US relationship is the "most consequential of the 21st century." (ANI)