India's $100-b defence pie eyed by American miliary contractors

Eyeing India's estimated $100 billion defence pie, major U.S. arms suppliers are wooing Indian defence agents and officials as New Delhi embarks on a major military shopping spree to modernise its Soviet-era arsenal, a US media report said.

At the U.S. embassy in New Delhi, defence contractors such as Northrop Grumman are sponsoring little league baseball teams, the companies' names stitched onto the uniforms, the Washington Post said in a report from New Delhi.

Almost every weekend, there are cocktails and closed-door presentations in the suites of New Delhi's five-star hotels, hosted by retired admirals and generals from the US armed forces who now work for defence firms, such as Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, it said.

"India will look back-generations down the road-at this period as a defining moment for its new, modern military," the Post cited Roger Rose, chief executive of Lockheed Martin India, which is renting half a wing of New Delhi's Taj Palace Hotel for a 12-person office.

"I think we can all see that there are a lot of threats shared between our two democracies."

With its growing military footprint, India is steering away from traditional ally Russia, its main weapons supplier, and looking toward the United States to help upgrade its weapons systems and troop gear, the Post said

India is also pushing the Obama administration to ease the acquisition of US weapons and technology. Already this year, a high-level US government group cleared the way for Lockheed and Boeing to offer India cutting-edge radar technology for fighter jets.

India now has a shopping list that includes 126 fighter jets, 155mm howitzers, long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, vast cargo planes used in long-distance conflicts, high-tech helicopters and deep-water submarines. Boeing is vying with Lockheed-along with French, Russian and Swedish companies and a European consortium-for a fighter jet deal worth about $10 billion.

India is holding flight tests for the fighter jets. Lockheed and Boeing have conducted demonstration flights for Indian celebrities and defence experts.

"America's relationship to India is maturing and expanding. India is an important global player now," the Post said citing William S. Cohen, a defence secretary during the Clinton administration who is a member of the US-India Business Council's board of directors.

Agencies

Will MindTree touch $1 bn revenue by 2014?

Mid-sized software services firm MindTree, which completed 10 years on Tuesday, will come up with newer strategies as it aims to achieve over $1 billion in revenues by March, 2014. The company, which counts steel-maker Arcelor Mittal and Swedish truckmaker Volvo among its top customers, will be focusing on areas like energy, defence and healthcare. The firm is also targeting newer geographies like Japan.

“We are making strategic investment in defence, working along with DRDO and focusing on areas which deal with the surveillance space. There isn’t much revenue contribution right now, but the potential in long run is great” , said S Janakiraman, president and CEO, R&D services and one of the 10 co-founders of MindTree. MindTree is also building video surveillance , analytics solutions and new telemedicine solutions for the burgeoning rural healthcare market. “We recently had a major win from an Apac telecom firm and an European consumer appliance company. The size of the contracts is worth $5-6 million”, he said.

Mr Janakiraman said that MindTree will be the fastest growing company once the recovery happens as they are making more investments for innovations. “The 15% salary cut of 200 employees out of 8,000 will be immediately restored once business picks up”. MindTree has also bagged a contract for IT services from Swift, the financial messaging provider, and has plans to tap energy sector.

“We have put the team in place and are talking to large energy companies in Europe and the US,” said Anjan Lahiri, president and CEO, IT services and one of the co-founders of MindTree.

Agencies

Like Boeing, Bombardier to layoff 3,000 jobs

Canadian plane maker Bombardier, which is the third largest aircraft company in the world, on Thursday joined giant Boeing in axing 3,000 jobs worldwide citing sagging demand for its business jets.

Boeing has already announced to lay off 10,000 staff as the global downturn takes toll on the aviation sector.

Surprisingly, job cuts at the Montreal-based Bombardier came the day the company reported higher profits and revenue for the fiscal year 2009. But "there is no doubt that we are going through challenging times and our business environment is changing fast," said Bombardier CEO Pierre Beaudoin in a statement.

"However, we believe we are well positioned to face this difficult economic environment with a strong balance sheet, high level of liquidity as well as a large and diversified backlog, both by product and geographies," he added.

Thursday's job cuts, which account for 10 per cent of the company's total workforce, are in addition to 1,360 jobs it eliminated in February after fall in demand for its Learjet and Challenger aircraft, the Bombardier statement said.

Apart from eliminating hundreds of positions in Canada, the latest job cuts will also affect the company's facilities in the US, Mexico and Northern Ireland, the statement said.

With companies avoiding buying of corporate jets amid the global downturn, Bombardier said it expected to sell 25 per cent less business aircraft in the current fiscal year.

In its annual fiscal report Thursday, Bombardier posted a net income of $1 billion for the fiscal year 2009 ending January 31 - up from $317 million during the previous year.

The company earned a total revenue of $19.7 billion in 2009, compared to $17.5 billion in fiscal year 2008.

However, despite its strong financial showing, the company said its sales were slipping, forcing it to scale back its operations and axe jobs.

Agencies