Bavarian companies forge new ties with India | Bengaluru News

Bengaluru: Investments by Bavarian companies in India, and in particular Karnataka, is growing rapidly, Tobias Gotthardt, member of the Bavarian Parliament and vice minister in the Bavarian ministry of economic affairs, regional development & energy, said on a recent visit to Bengaluru. Bavaria is the largest state in Germany.Gotthardt noted two recent developments in Karnataka, including a Rs 315-crore investment by Krones, a German producer of packaging and bottling machines, and a partnership between Renk Group, a Bavarian provider of drive solutions for military and civilian use, and Quantum Systems, a major European drone maker, to locally design, develop, produce and maintain drones, especially for military use. Renk has particular expertise in tank technology, and the idea of the partnership is to digitally connect tanks with drones, because, as Gotthardt said, “In future (wars), drones will attack first and tanks will follow.”Gotthardt said while Bavaria has collaborated with India in a variety of areas, it is now eager to look at newer ones like space, AI, quantum computing and biotech. He said given Karnataka and Bavaria’s strengths in startups, the govts in both regions have agreed to build an innovation corridor between the two – to bring all the players together that make innovation possible. “You have a network for startups, you have a network for companies, we have AHK (chamber of commerce), we have clusters like the biotech cluster, chemical cluster, we will link all these networks to work together.Because behind these networks there’s strong power,” he said.Gotthardt was in Bengaluru as head of a Bavarian delegation of over 30 corporate executives, academics, Parliament members and govt officers. We got the opportunity to talk to two of them – Guido Brendler, SVP of sales and business development for Germany in MBDA, the European corporation that designs, develops and manufactures missiles and related systems, and Nico Neumann, CEO of Deutsche Aircraft, a manufacturer of regional commercial aircraft.MBDA makes the weapons package, including the Meteor air-to-air missile, for India’s Rafale fleet. Brendler said MBDA is looking at other collaborative programmes with India. “Germany has changed its foreign policy, there’s now a much more embracing attitude towards India. A lot of restrictions have been lifted. So, cooperation programmes is something that we want, and which the politicians are supporting,” he said.Brendler noted that India has excellent defence equipment makers like Larsen & Toubro, and Bharat Dynamics. He said that during this visit, he saw some really impressive production capabilities and materials here. “Technologies and capabilities that India has and we probably don’t have, we want to see how we can use them in our products. We want to see what we can develop further together,” he said, adding that co-developing armaments for India’s LCA (light combat aircraft) could be an opportunity.Deutsche Aircraft is developing the D328eco, a next-generation turboprop aircraft based on the heritage of Dornier, and is hoping to offer that for India’s regional airport connectivity, as also for segments like search & rescue, border control, and Air Force special operations. “We have just done a performance calculation for Kargil. I think that’s one airport which is very hard to reach. We found we can get in and out with full payload,” Neumann said.Bengaluru-based Dynamatic Technologies, founded by Udayant Toby Malhoutra, is the sole supplier of the rear fuselage for the D328eco, which is expected to be in service by 2027. Deutsche Aircraft also works with Bengaluru-based Sasmos Het Technologies for wiring interconnections, and with Hyderabad-based Cyient for the cabin management system and the D328eco’s technical publications.QUOTEWe saw a lot of young, enthusiastic people during our visit. When you look into their eyes, you see how they burn for the ideas they have. We have been in India for 30 hours, and this has been 30 hours of inspiration. I travel a lot around the globe. You don’t find so many countries where you have such a spirit behind the economy. We are really counting on India.Tobias Gotthardt, Vice Minister, Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development & Energy