Billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani on Thursday hosted Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and indicated the emerging possibilities for the commodity-to-defence conglomerate — Adani Group — a for tie-up with British companies in the areas of defence and aerospace technologies.

Johnson started his two-day maiden visit to India from Ahmedabad and held the first business engagement with Adani at his sprawling campus of Adani Group Corporate Office at Shantigram. “Honoured to host @BorisJohnson, the first UK PM to visit Gujarat, at Adani HQ. Delighted to support climate and sustainability agenda with focus on renewables, green H2 & new energy. Will also work with UK companies to co-create defence and aerospace technologies. #AtmanirbharBharat,” Adani said in a Twitter post.

Adani Group has already set high ambitions for defence and aerospace business. Adani Defence and Aerospace leads the group’s foray into defence and aerospace manufacturing. During the meeting that lasted for about 30 minutes, Johnson and Adani reportedly discussed a range of bilateral matters that included key thrust areas of energy transition, climate action, aerospace and defence, and developing human capital.

Meeting agenda

The big-ticket item on agenda for the meeting between the two was about collaboration in the defence sector, said sources. Adani aims to develop capabilities as an original equipment maker (OEM) player and work towards making India an export hub for defence. This comes in the backdrop of India setting a goal to invest $300 billion by 2030 to modernise the armed forces.

The country has already demonstrated its intention to achieve self-reliance in defence by banning the import of more than 300 different equipment and platforms, a move that defence commentators have described as positive indigenisation.

Academic support

Both sides will explore the areas of collaboration between Adani Group and British companies as part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative to co-design and develop aerospace and defence technology. Besides the business, Adani also extended an academic facilitation support for the UK government’s prestigious international scholarship — Chevening Scholarship with a commitment of £200,000 every year through five scholarships for Indian graduate students to study in the UK for a master’s degree.

Adani also invited the British PM to the upcoming India-UK Climate Science and Technology Summit, being supported by Adani and scheduled to take place in London on June 28 this year. Later, Johnson also visited the manufacturing facility of earth moving equipment maker, JCB, at Halol in central Gujarat.

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