Senior Partner Consultant
Ajay S Dadhwal is an Aerospace & Defense (A&D) professional with over twenty-three years of multi-functional and insightful experience in the Indian Navy and Ministry of Defense (MoD) along with over eight years of industry experience. He has worked with DPSUs, PSUs, government organizations, with Indian & Foreign OEMs and in multiple industries including with MSMEs and Start-Ups. He has steered projects like Uttar Pradesh Defense Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) as Project Head and various projects for Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Indian Navy.
Having worked extensively in government organizations as well as in the industry has equipped him with the understanding of Aerospace & Defense ecosystem in India and how the industry is shaping up to meet the futuristic and indigenization requirements to achieve self-reliance. Presently he is working towards integrating MSMEs from non-defense sector into defense supply chain as part of Make-in-India initiative for creation of industrial base. He is also working on scaling of innovative solutions by facilitating partnerships and investments.
Setting up of Uttar Pradesh Defense Industrial Corridor project is a unique and first of its kind greenfield project in India. This project aims to create a manufacturing ecosystem for Aerospace & Defense industry. The defense industry not only pertains to weapons and sensors but also electronics, drones, technical textiles, RF absorbing paints, fire safety equipment, surveillance equipment, autonomous solutions, alloys etc.
Having served in the government organizations and thereafter multi-industry experience has given him a good understanding of the manufacturing ecosystem, policies, procurement procedures and decision-making process. With this insightful experience he steered the project and facilitated in integration of industry, MEMEs and start-ups into the manufacturing ecosystem. Despite covid, the KPMG team facilitated in completely population of defense node at Aligarh with wide spectrum of industries. Acting as an interface between the state government and the industry, he advised state government on MoD policies and the investors requirements.
The radio and cellular communication technology is progressing at a fast pace. To harness the RF technology towards achieving reliable and real time communications, a project on software defined radio was initiated. The project being technology intensive, a consortium was formed based on the domain expertise. Achieving collaborative approach and synergy between organizations working at different five locations/states was a big challenge as project head.
By regular reviews at each of these locations by all consortium members and adopting strategy of 'fail-fast', it was ensured that project momentum is maintained. Furthermore, integrating user from ab-initio stages resulted in development of this solution. This project was also unique in the sense that a consortium led approach was adopted for the first time and it proved to be a good model for future projects.