USIBC honors Baba Kalyani for pioneering work in India’s manufacturing and defense sectors

Baba Kalyani, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Forge, has been awarded the prestigious USIBC (US-India Business Council) Global Business Leadership Award 2024. Kalyani’s extraordinary leadership, spanning over five decades, has transformed Bharat Forge into a global conglomerate.

At the event, Kalyani was appreciated for his immense contribution to the development of the Indian manufacturing sector, especially in the areas of technology and defence.

In his acceptance speech, Kalyani expressed gratitude to the USIBC jury and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for the honor. Reflecting on his long-standing ties to the United States, Kalyani recounted how his engineering background at MIT in the 1970s laid the foundation for his vision to build Bharat Forge into one of the world’s leading technology-based manufacturing companies.

At the time, the company was a small, family-owned forging operation with sales of just $1 million. Today, under his leadership, Bharat Forge has grown into a diversified, global powerhouse.A journey of transformation

Kalyani highlighted how the economic reforms of the 1990s, led by then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, gave entrepreneurs the freedom to innovate and expand. These reforms enabled Bharat Forge to go from a domestic Indian company to a global player. He also acknowledged the strong partnerships his company had built with American companies, particularly in the defence sector.

Drawing inspiration from the rise of the United States as a global superpower during World War II, Kalyani stressed the importance of manufacturing and technology in building national strength. He also praised the growing U.S.-India partnership, noting that it now focuses on intellectual capacity and talent, particularly in emerging industries such as semiconductors.

Partnerships for the future

During his speech, Kalyani expressed admiration for the growing ecosystem of engineering talent in India, especially in cities like Bengaluru and Delhi, which have emerged as innovation hubs in semiconductor design. While India has made significant strides in this area, Kalyani stressed the need for a greater focus on manufacturing, where Bharat Forge plays a key role.

Another key point of the evening was Kalyani’s leadership in leading Bharat Forge in the defence sector. He spoke about his company’s foray into manufacturing critical defence equipment, inspired by the US wartime manufacturing efforts under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This move enabled Bharat Forge to become a key player in the Indian defence industry, with a growing export order book.