On July 8th, AMCHAM’s Defense Committee members met in a hybrid fashion at the Lockheed Martin office in New Delhi. The leadership, Mr. William L. Blair, Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Vice President and Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin India, Mr. Ravi Nirgudkar, Co-Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Managing Director India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, BAE Systems India Services (Pvt.) Limited, Mr. Surendra Ahuja, Co-Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Managing Director, Boeing Defense India and Mr. Gaurav Mehndiratta, Co-Chairman – Defense Committee, AMCHAM and Partner and Head – Aerospace & Defence, KPMG India, joined the meeting in person, along with the secretariat lead, Ms. Udaya Arun, Director – Aerospace & Defense, AMCHAM. There were around 10 members who joined the meeting via Webex.

From the U.S. Embassy, LTC Simone Shen, Deputy Chief, Office of Defense Cooperation, Col. Aaron Cooper, Acting Defense Attaché and Mr. Raghavan Srinivasan, Commercial Attaché joined the discussions over Webex. Ms. Arun opened the discussions with a brief readout of the meetings and engagements conducted at the AMCHAM Annual Door Knock to Washington DC in early June. The defense delegates who had joined the door knock briefed members on their thoughts and feedback on various aerospace and defense related meetings.

The committee discussed the possibility of the rescheduling of DefExpo 2022 in October and their plans for participation. The team felt that amongst other agenda points, an update on DefExpo could form the basis of a meeting request with Mr. Sanjay Jaju, Assistant Secretary Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, Government of India. Lastly, the committee decided that going forth committee meetings would move back to a completely in-person pre-pandemic format. The next Defense Committee meeting was confirmed for August 10th at the Boeing office.

Membership

By joining AMCHAM India, you become part of an active and dynamic Apex Chamber of U.S. Industry in India with a membership base of more than 400 American companies in India. AMCHAM is an important voice for policy advocacy, a critical source for business intelligence, a vibrant platform for networking and expanding your business.