Banmali Agrawala new chairman of Tata Advanced Systems, co aims to scale up defence biz
Tata Sons, the holding company of the salt-to-aviation Tata Group, has appointed Banmali Agrawala as the new chairman of Tata Advanced Systems (TASL), the group's aerospace and defence solutions unit, according to people aware of the development. Agrawala succeeds Vijay Singh who has retired.
Agrawala is also a senior advisor at Tata Sons and chairman of Tata Electronics.
Singh is the vice-chairman of Tata Trusts.
TASL declined to comment.
By 2018, Tata Sons had brought some of the group's entities under a single defence vertical. Group companies such as Tata Power SED, TAL Manufacturing, Tata Advanced Materials and the defence division of Tata Motors were consolidated into TASL.
The company is now building its execution skills to bid for large defence contracts from the government, which is planning to build defence systems and equipment under its 'Make in India' scheme with technological help from foreign defence equipment makers.
TASL has been focusing on scaling up the group's defence business and is gearing up to become India's first private manufacturer of a military aircraft. TASL has partnered with Airbus to make 40 Airbus C295, a new-generation tactical airlifter that's meant to replace the ageing fleet of the Avro Hawker Siddeley HS-748 twin-turboprop aircraft, that has been in service in the Indian Air Force since the early 1960s.
The deal between TASL and Airbus to sell the 40 Airbus C295s, worth ₹21,000 crore, was signed and approved by the Indian government in September last year.
