Amrit Acharya, co-founder of Zetwerk, advised the Indian government to prioritise exports, recognising the unstable supply chain exposed by the COVID-19 outbreak and the country’s over-reliance on China.

Srinath Ramakkrushnan, co-founder of Zetwerk, provided excellent insights into the state of Indian manufacturing, the company’s strategic investments, and their vision for the future.

Ramakkrushnan argues that India’s emphasis on import substitution presents an excellent opportunity for Indian manufacturing enterprises. He underlined the importance of incentivizing domestic manufacturing capacities, particularly in vital fields such as defence and aerospace.

Amrit Acharya recognised exports as the future driver of growth for Indian companies. Acharya urges the Indian government to focus on export promotion, recognising the unstable supply chain exposed by the COVID-19 outbreak and the country’s overdependence on China. He emphasised that consumers do not want a full decoupling from China, but rather a diversity of their supply chain, with India playing a critical role.

Zetwerk is positioned itself as a leading player in renewables, aerospace, and defence, recognising the long-term opportunities.

“There are absolutely spaces where capacity is a bottleneck, where there is either monopolistic capacity or supply, or where the capacity side is truly quite young, with multiyear demand. And India still lacks the reliable capacity to meet the multiyear demand that we see. And those are areas where we have not shied away as a corporation, but rather aggressively engaged in capacity building’, Ramakkrushnan stated.

“So electronics is one significant area, and we are also investing in aircraft and defence. Even with renewables as a theme, we see renewables like solar and wind as a multi-decade opportunity for the country. And, given the current capacity, it will not be sufficient. So that’s when we realised we needed to do our part,” Ramakkrushnan explained.

Amrit Acharya offered an overview of Zetwerk’s financial performance, claiming that the company became profitable on an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) basis last year. Zetwerk has invested ₹250 crore in capital expenditure to establish manufacturing plants in India and the United States. The ambitious plan includes going.

Zetwerk, founded in 2018, became a unicorn in 2021 and has raised a total of $674 million until 2023. The company’s unique strategy allows for custom manufacture of over 9 million parts, enabling prompt delivery to assembly lines for 1,800 clients in 20 countries. Notable clients include GE, Tata Group, L&T, and ISRO.