In Episode 2 of Mic'd Up With India's Defencepreneurs, host Adith Charlie sits down with Rohan Gala, Co-Founder & CEO of Sanlayan Technologies, to explore the innovations shaping India’s defence sector. From cutting-edge electronic warfare solutions to AI-driven technologies, this episode gives you an insider’s look into the world of defence startups.
Highlights from the episode:
- Journey of Sanlayan Technologies and its vision.
- Key electronic warfare and radar tech insights.
- Role of AI in modern defense solutions.
- Tips for aspiring defense entrepreneurs.
Watch the #FullEpisode to get the complete story behind India’s rising defence startups, and #StayTuned for more episodes of Mic'd Up With India's Defencepreneurs!
00:00 - Show Theme
01:10 - Host Introduction to Mic'd Up with Defencepreneurs
02:00 - What is Sanlayan Technologies?
03:18 - Why Enter Defense Tech Sector?
06:02 - Defense Product Areas & Electronic Warfare Focus
07:20 - Impact of Operation Sindoor on Defense Reforms
09:12 - Key Products & Defense Deployment
10:20 - Dexel's Role in Avionics & AI Integration
11:20 - Changing Defense Procurement & Private Participation
14:32 - Products Used During Operation Sindoor
15:07 - Challenges in Attracting Defense Tech Talent
17:16 - Integrating Acquired Subsidiaries & Culture
19:16 - Role of AI in Products & Design
21:19 - Prioritizing Opportunities & Company Strategy
23:33 - Product Charter & Key Technology Areas
24:30 - Customers & Market Focus
25:27 - Future Plans & International Expansion
26:02 - Focus on Capability Development Over Growth
26:33 - Why Engineers Should Join Sanlayan
27:38 - Hiring Veterans & Team Growth
29:24 - Advice for Defense Tech Startups
30:40 - Maintaining High Quality & Testing Standards
31:35 - Message on Building Indigenous Defense Tech
32:25 - End
#MicdUpWith #DefenceTech #AtmanirbharBharat #SanlayanTechnologies #RohanGala #AdithCharlie #StartupSuccess #MilitaryTech #AsianetNews #india
Highlights from the episode:
- Journey of Sanlayan Technologies and its vision.
- Key electronic warfare and radar tech insights.
- Role of AI in modern defense solutions.
- Tips for aspiring defense entrepreneurs.
Watch the #FullEpisode to get the complete story behind India’s rising defence startups, and #StayTuned for more episodes of Mic'd Up With India's Defencepreneurs!
00:00 - Show Theme
01:10 - Host Introduction to Mic'd Up with Defencepreneurs
02:00 - What is Sanlayan Technologies?
03:18 - Why Enter Defense Tech Sector?
06:02 - Defense Product Areas & Electronic Warfare Focus
07:20 - Impact of Operation Sindoor on Defense Reforms
09:12 - Key Products & Defense Deployment
10:20 - Dexel's Role in Avionics & AI Integration
11:20 - Changing Defense Procurement & Private Participation
14:32 - Products Used During Operation Sindoor
15:07 - Challenges in Attracting Defense Tech Talent
17:16 - Integrating Acquired Subsidiaries & Culture
19:16 - Role of AI in Products & Design
21:19 - Prioritizing Opportunities & Company Strategy
23:33 - Product Charter & Key Technology Areas
24:30 - Customers & Market Focus
25:27 - Future Plans & International Expansion
26:02 - Focus on Capability Development Over Growth
26:33 - Why Engineers Should Join Sanlayan
27:38 - Hiring Veterans & Team Growth
29:24 - Advice for Defense Tech Startups
30:40 - Maintaining High Quality & Testing Standards
31:35 - Message on Building Indigenous Defense Tech
32:25 - End
#MicdUpWith #DefenceTech #AtmanirbharBharat #SanlayanTechnologies #RohanGala #AdithCharlie #StartupSuccess #MilitaryTech #AsianetNews #india
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NewsTranscript
00:00Our buildings have made their best for the good of the people of the country in Bhārath.
00:07Ruhan, what's the best part about building for Bhārath?
00:10The strategy is basically what not to do.
00:16Multiple of our products have been commissioned that actually saw light of day during Operation Sindhu.
00:21Some of our products were on the aircrafts that were used on the Akash anti-aircraft system,
00:27system on the d4 counter drone system that was widely spoken about some of our subsystems have
00:33been moved including power including some of our digital subsystems so what's happening is there
00:38is a lot of backfilling of orders and a new opportunity for companies to actually bring
00:43in new technologies because there is just so much requirement the armed forces or the end users are
00:48actually looking to try out new technologies try out new products because of the just large
00:53requirement that has actually come up that has opened up doors for you know companies like us
00:57one of the largest areas that we are trying to solve for is on the electronic warfare side of
01:01things and that's where we feel there is a large scope of bringing in new solutions because most
01:07of the existing solutions that we have are getting outdated as you can see across wars
01:23hello and welcome everyone my name is adit charlie i'm going to be your host and in season one i'm
01:32going to bring you up close and personal with the men and women who are making atma nirbhar bharat
01:37a reality in the defense space we're going to be talking about stories of resilience entrepreneurship
01:44and first principles thinking so let's get ready to meet india's defense preneurs rohan gala ceo and
01:51founder of sunlion technologies welcome to the show thanks so much for joining in thanks for
01:56having me over adit pleasure to be here so first things first the name of the company that you run
02:03is very intriguing to my mind tell us a little bit about the choice of this name and with this name
02:09what is it that you're trying to project to your biggest customer which i assume is the government of
02:13india yeah so very interestingly uh we are three founders uh who started this company and when we
02:21were thinking about what we were trying to do i think a recurring theme to us was trying to merge
02:28our experiences uh trying to merge our learnings from different sectors and that's where you know
02:35a theme of fusion actually was something that was very central to us right uh sunland actually means
02:41fusion in sanskrit uh and that's how you know on one train ride uh one of us actually came up with
02:48the name and it stuck uh because that's kind of what we are trying to do uh with this approach in
02:55building the company um we're trying to merge you know the old with the new uh bring in first
03:01principles thinking uh behave like a startup move quickly but also respect the traditions and uh the
03:08kind of gravitas that is needed to actually build something in something as strategic as a defense
03:15so that's kind of where we come from understood why defense tech right like i'm sure a couple of years
03:21back when you thought about donning the entrepreneur's hat there were many sectors that were ripe for
03:27disruption why defense tech which is in many ways a closed space regulations are strong
03:32um purchase cycles are longer why would you enter into you know that kind of a space at this point
03:39in your personal career journey um so all three of us were at a manufacturing company before this
03:48and when we were transitioning out thinking about you know what would be the next challenge to kind of
03:53take on a couple of things were very clear to us that uh india was looking like it was ready for
04:00disruptions across multiple large spaces you know whether it's consumer tech which has already
04:04happened autos which happened much earlier uh we all felt that defense was a space that was
04:10underrepresented uh in startups and actually becoming a need of the hour given you know what's been
04:16happening on a global stage since 2020 2021 where you have more and more disruption more wars breaking
04:24out across the globe and so it made a lot of sense for us to look at defense as a area to
04:30apply our brains apply our minds and actually do a little bit of problem solving so that you know
04:35the nation can actually reap rewards of what we've been able to do but was there a specific aha moment
04:42a point in time an event that really you know structured or crystallized this thinking so when
04:47we started doing our primary research going out and talking to you know potential customers from multiple
04:53uh sectors uh defense was always one of them because uh my co-founder abhijit spent almost the last two
05:01decades uh working in the defense sector uh you know working across large companies um and so when we were
05:08talking to users what stood out to us is that uh there was a clear lack of you know very high quality talent
05:15in defense there are of course thousands of msmes who've been at it uh but there was a clear need from the
05:23end users a clear need from some of the large drdos and dpsus to actually bring in high quality talent
05:29the kind that you know tech was able to attract over the last 10 or 15 years in india and so that
05:35became something of an aha moment to us where it seemed very clear to the end user that if there was
05:41great talent available there were plenty of problem statements uh that they had and they all wanted
05:47solutions to that you know as of yesterday right and that you know urge and that burning desire kind
05:53of translated to us uh going deeper into uh seeing how we could get this across the line fascinating you
06:01talked about problem statements right defense is a large space uh solutions were needed as of yesterday
06:09in some of the you know major areas so what problem statements have you identified and how does that
06:15sort of translate into the kind of products that you are building for this space um so currently
06:20sunlion is you know we're a part conglomerate with multiple companies we've acquired a couple of old
06:27companies on the way uh in terms of the broad technology areas we are mostly into defense electronics
06:33and within that you know we straddle between uh digital electronics which would be mostly around fpgas
06:39software hardware solutions avionics power electronics and then most recently we've also
06:46started our you know radars and electronic warfare part of the business so these are largely the
06:51technology areas we're in uh with respect to problem statements across all of these i think there are
06:56multiple areas that we're trying to solve but one of the largest areas that we are trying to solve for
07:01is on the electronic you know warfare side of things and that's where we feel uh there is a large scope of
07:09bringing in new solutions because most of the existing solutions that we have are getting
07:14outdated as you can see across you know wars across the globe interesting rohan to my mind operation
07:21sindoor was a watershed movement in india's history a lot of change is expected over the next five years
07:27or so in terms of defense procurement already the ministry of defense has said that 2025-26 is going
07:33to be the year of reforms how do you look at some of these developments the operation sindoor obviously has
07:39brought a lot of the conversation around you know being resilient and having you know supply chains
07:46that are very strategic to be self-grown homegrown and this has become a dinner table conversation but
07:53this is something that we actually realized when we started the company a couple of years back
07:58in terms of you know having the ability to have our own indigenous technology because you can't
08:03always be you know you can't always have your supply chains that are risked by some of the global
08:09economies uh what has happened since then and because of operation sindoor is that a lot of
08:15the systems and kind of weaponry that was manufactured over the last so many years are actually gone into
08:22active duty you know because we haven't seen war uh at the kind of scale uh since that time and so
08:28what's happening is there is a lot of backfilling of orders and a new opportunity for companies to
08:33actually bring in new technologies because there is just so much requirement that you know the armed
08:39forces or the end users are actually looking to look you know try out new technologies try out new
08:45products because of the just large requirement that has actually come up since operation sindoor so
08:50that has opened up doors for you know companies like us and many others fascinating um in 18 months of being
08:58in business uh you've made the right kind of moves you've got in marquee investors on board and
09:03i'll come to that in a second uh but among your product suite right which is that one or two products
09:09that you are most excited about and if you could tell us some information on how these have been deployed
09:15maybe on the front lines maybe at the back end that would be very useful um so like you said right it's
09:22only been 18 months and we're literally on day one of you know building out what we intend to build you
09:27know in terms of indigenous tech stack but uh some of the very interesting problem statements that
09:32we're going after and especially the challenging ones are on radars and electronic warfare uh we're
09:38essentially trying to build a tech stack that you know goes from concept design all the way to
09:44actually having our own software algorithms and you know it at the heart of it is about data security
09:49not being uh dependent on you know foreign oems and this is something that we are solving at mission
09:56critical speed because we understand um as you know warfare and combat evolves at the rate at it
10:03it's evolving uh this would become one of the largest areas of deterrence and actually having
10:09military strength uh to be able to ensure that you know the stockpiles and the kind of technology
10:15we have ensures we don't have war rather than actually going to war tell us a little bit about
10:21dexel as a company uh which is the primary space in which they play and what are the kind of orders
10:28that you're seeing for dexel especially post acquisition uh so dexel has been around for 25
10:35years and they've worked on multiple platforms but one of their biggest strengths is on the avionics side
10:41we're also expecting them to get a large order for one of the fighter fleets very very soon and
10:47uh because of this rich avionics experience what we are now able to do is provide you know solutions
10:54that actually embed things like ai quantum computing into newer platforms into some of our legacy
11:02platforms which give us an edge um and you know are creating a large path for more and more products
11:10to kind of get into the fleets that we have i've been a journalist for nearly two decades now and
11:16uh from the very beginning i've covered companies especially it services companies who you know
11:21work in india and work with you know psus and government organizations one common refrain has
11:26always been that you know um procurement cycles are longer uh you know rfps tend to focus a lot
11:33on the l1 aspect the lowest bidder possible um and therefore it it has never been a very lucrative
11:41sort of space for a lot of you know indian i.t services companies has that changed uh if yes
11:47then what has really been the you know push factor see i think there's multiple angles to look at this
11:55one at the end of the day you have to deliver products uh to the end user and so it's not as
12:03you know as fast moving as let's say i.t services company would expect right right but having said that
12:09a lot of new reforms that have come through you know starting 19 uh you know 2020 2021 have been
12:17towards ensuring that there's more private participation uh ensuring that barriers for
12:22smaller companies are being removed fundamentally you have things like tdf idex you have multiple
12:28reforms on the dcp dap kind of things which are ensuring that companies with the right products
12:36companies that are answering the problem statements of the end user actually get an opportunity to
12:42present those products actually get the funding get the backing that is required to you know deliver
12:47products into the hands of the end user right i would say that things are moving at a very rapid pace
12:53the way the government is buying the way the government wants to include participation from private
12:59companies is evolving very very rapidly yeah are we there yet probably not but are we moving in the
13:04right direction i would say 100 and i think the ministry of defense has called out 2025-26 as the year
13:11of reforms um and the year of theaterization are these opportunities that you're looking forward to
13:18absolutely i mean these are things that would you know just multiply the kind of opportunities uh that
13:24are available to everyone who's kind of a participant in this larger ecosystem uh we're also looking forward to
13:30you know being a beneficiary of all the reforms that are going on and along with our subsidiaries we
13:35feel very confident that because of our you know relationships because of the products that we've already
13:41delivered and because of the vintage of you know what we've been doing our understanding of the entire
13:46ecosystem where we you know uh stand to gain very handsomely from the reforms that will be coming up any of
13:52your products are presently in active deployment a lot of our products at least from the subsidiaries are actively
13:58deployed have been deployed for the last two or three decades uh across multiple you know platforms
14:04whether it's air land sea space uh some of them being you know fighter aircrafts battle tanks missile
14:12launchers missiles uh naval ships and submarines uh so we have our products across all of the battlefronts
14:21so did any of your products actually see active duty during operation sindoor yeah multiple of our products
14:27have been commissioned uh that actually saw light of day during operation sindoor so some of our products
14:33were were on the aircrafts that were used some of our products were in the you know anti-aircraft guns
14:39and missile launchers that were used and specifically could you call out what products these were
14:45um so on the akash anti-aircraft system on the d4 counter drone system that was widely spoken about
14:53uh some of our subsystems have been used including power including some of our digital subsystems right
15:00um so yeah okay let's shift gears a little bit and talk about you know entrepreneurship in defense tech
15:07um now this is a space that is getting a lot of action um the right kind of capital is chasing
15:13startups in this space but in terms of attracting talent how's the journey been so far in your 18 months
15:19as a as a company it's not the same as attracting talent for you know uh b2c uh which was much easier
15:27and people have seen uh you know how these some of these companies have grown uh i think there's two
15:34parts to this right people who are building in defense tech understand uh that this is not something
15:39where there's quick gratification instant gratification uh first of all it requires people to have a passion
15:47for the industry second of all because of the longer product cycles it's important that people come
15:54with that background of you know persisting through challenges and rightfully so right when you're talking
16:00about mission critical products and services that will be used by the tri forces in defending the
16:07sovereignty of india you need to have the highest standards of quality the highest standards of
16:12technology right um and so it requires a different kind of mental makeup in terms of you know how you
16:17build products uh but having said that given what has been transpiring over the last few years uh on
16:23the global stage and also how policy is driving uh all the action in defense like you mentioned
16:30there is a lot of great talent now that's looking to really build hardware solutions uh that's looking
16:36to work in mission driven mission oriented companies like ours and so it's about you know finding
16:42the right match uh looking at people who come with that integrity that passion uh to you know deliver
16:49on a mission and have what it takes to actually you know build heads down you talked about your
16:55subsidiaries um i think versa bite and dexel are the two companies that you have acquired and both of these
17:03companies come with rich legacy 25 plus year old companies both of them tell us a little bit about the
17:10integration uh because as they say culture eats strategy for breakfast and generally when you
17:17have companies that are at very different you know stages of their life from what i've heard and from
17:22what i've covered integration does become a challenge so how did you go about that aspect of you know
17:27getting culture co-hum and culture fitment and how do you make sure that you know the people are all
17:33aligned and directed towards a single mission this is actually something that we thought about a lot when we
17:38started the company uh given you know we had a clear focus and mandate to go out and you know
17:44partner with companies uh partner with msmes who were already present uh we had a playbook in mind in
17:50terms of saying that how do we actually acquire how do we look at these companies how do we integrate
17:55and so a couple of things that really stood out for us from the get-go was that first of all we had
18:01to all be mission aligned uh it becomes very easy to cut out the noise when you know the end goal
18:06is the same for both the parties uh secondly also becomes very important that the traditional ways
18:14of thinking you know there's an acquirer and an acquiree uh is replaced by a more you know partnership
18:19model where we bring something to the table as a you know young startup who brings a lot of energy
18:25that ability to move very quickly velocity um and ability to you know bring in talent that typically
18:32older companies are not able to do both talent and capital and then of course the older companies
18:37you know they bring in their relationships they bring in their proven products they bring in that
18:42metal of understanding how the ecosystem works you know the sheer experience that cannot be solved
18:48because you can't really go against the physics of time and that really helps solve a lot of you know
18:57debates or discussions where at the end of the day you have to sit across the table uh hear each other's
19:03views and then arrive at something that benefits one the customer and to the company and so once these
19:09goals are aligned i think it becomes very easy to you know maneuver some of the difficulties that come
19:15with you know these two opposite worlds crashing i think the broad expectation is that you know future wars
19:21will be ai powered ai enabled both from a defensive as well as an offensive capability standpoint how are
19:28you thinking about ai both at a product level and as well as at a back-end level in terms of you know
19:34streamlining functions in terms of how the day-to-day at the company works yeah i mean it's the buzzword of
19:41i think uh the century but uh how we look at ai largely in two buckets one you know how does it affect our
19:50users and what can i do to make the user's life simple so it's not very you know simple to understand
19:58from outside but when you are deploying at the edge right and by the edge it could be a border it could
20:03be an aircraft it becomes very difficult for us to be sitting remotely and do things that might seem
20:10simple otherwise you know configuration management uh edits to the kind of functionality that you can
20:16provide but with ai with the kind of self-learning that is possible with ai what we're able to do is
20:21learn from operational scenarios and actually you know create updates that don't need to be pushed by
20:27a team that is sitting so far away from the action and so this significantly empowers the user
20:35and secondly we look at it from a design point of view as to how we can make our products better even
20:40before we ship to the user and that's where some of the global libraries machine learning
20:47data that we get from you know having so many years of experience actually comes in where we are able
20:52to design products much better much faster we're able to do iterative prototyping that helps us take
20:58products to market much faster so i think these are large use cases that we are going after right
21:03now as a company but the space is evolving very very rapidly as you already know right and so we are
21:08always you know ears on the ground trying to understand where we could deploy some of these
21:13advanced solutions fascinating as a defense premier someone who's at the forefront of innovation what
21:20keeps you awake at night i think just the sheer fact that we have so many things to solve
21:29it's a long long road ahead india has been a country that typically imported most of their defense
21:36supplies bears ammunition so i think the scale of the opportunity and just how much there is to do
21:45actually keeps our entire team awake at night and you know yeah keeps on powering us so how do you
21:51prioritize which opportunities to go after because in my mind strategy is also about subtracting and
21:58strategy is a lot about focusing on you know key action items key focus areas and you know sort of
22:04making sure that the noise around is kind of subdued so how do you make sure in a highly competitive
22:10environment where there is transformation happening across the board which opportunities do you actually
22:15go after as a small company no well said i mean something that we keep you know saying in our board room
22:21is that strategy is basically what not to do right right and so i think there's a couple of factors that we look
22:29at when we think about building long term and then balancing the short term right so given that
22:38opportunity space is transforming so rapidly it's always tempting to go after multiple things but
22:45every company no matter the size right and us as a small company you know someone who's been around
22:49only 18 months it becomes even more important to ruthlessly prioritize and say no to so many things
22:55so what keeps us going is that we've got a you know medium term kind of goal in terms of where we want
23:02to be as a product company and so there's a clear product charter of how we want our product and
23:07technology to move but we are always very very close to the ground and always listening to what
23:13the user is saying so that we're able to manage that gap between what's going to happen two years from
23:18now and what we can do today to either you know accelerate decelerate or change the direction in which
23:25we're going so that is something that you know the leadership at the company is always thinking
23:29about always talking about debating and discussing you know on a day-to-day basis let us in on the
23:35product charter and what the pipeline looks like uh what products are you most excited about
23:42uh multiple products so from a deccel point of view we look we are looking at multiple new avionics
23:49solutions that will completely transform some of the largest fleets that we have in terms of their
23:54capabilities and how good they become because of these upgrades um from a versabyte point of view
24:00there's a bunch of high power applications that we're looking at and some of them will be able to
24:05address the evolving threat of you know drones uh and swarm of drones and from a sunland point of
24:12view we're like i said you know building on the radars in ew side uh we're building a bunch of radars
24:19that will have multiple applications going from army navy and air force so these are largely areas
24:25that i think are big bucket items uh in terms of the company strategy got it and who would your top
24:31customers be within this framework so our top customers are everyone at the end of the day it's
24:37the government of india and the tri forces that we supply to uh but essentially we want to work with
24:41you know large private system integrators we want to work with the tri forces directly because that's where
24:47the most amount of learning is and then we want to work with all the design agencies the drdos
24:53you know space agencies because a lot of uh action is now happening on the defense space side of
24:58things so that's largely you know the width of our customers got it as a company where do you see
25:05yourselves in say five years time frame is international expansion on the cards as well or would you be
25:11an india focused uh startup for the near term i think very near term we're looking at just the
25:18opportunity space in india and uh looking to double down on what you know we've been doing and what
25:24our subsidies have been doing we have a lot on our plate uh but given india's ambitions from a global
25:31stage and given the kind of technology that we are able to develop given the kind of cost advantage
25:37that india has we're definitely looking at some of the export markets uh to kind of see how our
25:43technology and applications can uh find use for some of the friendly countries that we export to
25:49right and in terms of the company's financials what are you chasing more at this point is it growth or is
25:55it growth backed by profitability see i think none of those we're actually chasing capability development
26:03you know at the end of the day we're a 18 month old company uh we've got our eyes set at a very
26:08very large uh mission which is to you know build radars for the country and so capability building is
26:15actually the forefront of what we are looking to do but having said that uh and very contrarian to
26:21most startups we are actually profitable given we have we given our subsidiaries and so we are looking
26:28to grow sustainably and ensure that you know we're not just a flash in the pan interesting uh if i am
26:35an engineer in the manufacturing space uh why should i join a company like uh sandayan very interesting
26:44uh this is something that we picked up you know from some of the people that have joined us something
26:48that we wanted to project when we started the company so couple of things one we are completely
26:54mission driven and so if there is that passion that one has in terms of doing something at scale
27:02you know for people who are out there at the front lines there is nothing that could be as rewarding
27:09as working for a company like ours right and secondly when you are at a company that's growing quickly
27:16a startup in a space that has all the tailwinds you know that are there uh where you know government
27:22reforms are coming year on year the kind of career progression the kind of exposure that you get
27:27is actually something that can you know completely change the trajectory of your career
27:31and so for an engineer joining us i think the sky is the limit in terms of both where the career can
27:37go what kind of technologies they can see and just what impact they can make uh on a day-to-day basis
27:43interesting are you also actively looking to hire veterans
27:46yeah uh you know given the kind of deep interaction we have with end users uh we do have a veteran
27:53program we have a few veterans already working with us uh you know both from an advisory and a full-time
27:59position and we're always looking to you know hire people who bring that lens of understanding very
28:06deeply the operational challenges understanding what it takes for products to really work out there
28:11where you know lab simulations are one thing yeah and then working at 5000 meters altitude is a
28:17completely different thing and so that is again part of that fusion that we speak about right we have
28:23engineers who are fresh out of college who are you know kind of experienced maybe a few years and then
28:28we have people who have 30 years of experience serving in the armed forces and that exchange that
28:34happens you know with both of these groups is actually what moves the company forward day on day
28:39so what's the hiring roadmap like given the kind of trajectory and given the kind of opportunities
28:44that are there in the pipeline uh how many people are you planning to hire say over the next 12 months
28:49or so look we're constantly hiring i mean we've already tripled our number of employees in the last
28:55six odd months and we're looking to further double from here and across the group we're already 300 plus
29:03people so it's a fairly large team but we're always looking for people like i said who are mission
29:09aligned uh who understand the kind of challenges who understand the operating requirements and uh that's
29:17both a mix of veterans and a mix of you know energetic engineers who will come in and solve the problem at
29:23hand got it for someone who's interested in defense tech as a space what would be your top advice
29:30especially someone who's just starting up and you know bustling with ideas in terms of what should
29:34be done what problem statement they should be looking at for someone new entering the space i think
29:40there's two parts right one is ideas are great and i think the entire machinery and ecosystem is primed
29:48to accept ideas today but also what one needs to realize is that the product life cycle from idea to
29:57concept to actually mass manufacturing is going to be a long and lengthy one right you're going to be
30:03serving mission critical applications and products that need to undergo the highest level of testing
30:10stringent quality norms some of these products will be in active duty commissioned for 10 20 25 years
30:18and so persistence is the name of the game you need to be completely aligned to the mission you need to
30:25be listening and hearing from the grounds up and you need to ensure that you are completely clued in
30:32to the ever evolving needs and serving some of these products and services to the nation
30:39since these are all mission critical systems that we are speaking about
30:43how do you keep the bar on quality and testing really high see at our company uh this is something
30:49that's very very core to us um it's you know one of our clearest cultural and you know philosophical
30:56values that we need to have a very very high bar for quality and it starts you know right from hiring
31:02the kind of people uh we would like to associate with um the kind of products the kind of systems that we
31:09have in the company uh the kind of rigorous uh documentation that follows the kind of internal reviews and
31:17stage gates that we have to ensure that nothing but the best or nothing but the right quality actually
31:23goes to some you know some of our customers and then of course we work with the customers to ensure
31:28that final fine-tuning the final quality bars are actually passed along with the customers
31:34to all our viewers who are watching right now is there any message that you would like to leave them with
31:39see defense as a space and the ecosystem is evolving very rapidly uh i think it's very critical that we
31:50have homegrown technologies very critical that we have a supply chain that's completely indigenous
31:56to ensure that the sovereignty of the country is not under any doubt and i'm very happy to say that
32:04i can see that sea of change around me i'm very excited building in the space that i'm building
32:09and would urge any entrepreneurs or people who are thinking about taking this leap to actually
32:16take that leap because this is something that is extremely energizing and deeply fulfilling that's
32:22it folks for this episode thank you so much for joining in if this episode resonated with you
32:27do share in your networks and we'll be back soon with another inspiring story
32:32of a defensepreneur that is building for india
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