Fifty Years Inside a Forge: Baba Kalyani and the Quiet Industrial Story of Pune

Fifty Years in Precision Engineering

Baba Kalyani graduated in mechanical engineering from BITS Pilani in 1970, joined Bharat Forge in 1972 and later completed a master's at MIT. He is chairman and managing director of Bharat Forge, the flagship of the Kalyani Group, and the company's own biography describes more than five decades of leadership, growing it from a regional player into a global forging and precision-engineering company that serves automotive, aerospace, defence, energy and infrastructure customers. One reference source describes it as the world's second-largest forging manufacturer after ThyssenKrupp.

Public Roles and Institutional Contributions

He is a member of the Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council, founding president of the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers and co-chair of several international business forums, including the India-Sweden Business Roundtable. He has sat on SKF's board since 2011 and chaired a government task force on special economic zone policy, constituted in June 2018. In 2000 he founded the Pratham Pune Education Foundation, which supports primary education for underprivileged children.

His honours include the Padma Bhushan (2008), Germany's Cross of the Order of Merit (2012), the Kiel Institute's Global Economy Prize for Business (2009), Sweden's Royal Order of the Polar Star, Japan's Order of the Rising Sun and France's Legion of Honour. In 2025 he received the Arjan Vaswani Founders' Leadership Award at the 73rd Indian Foundry Congress.

“Pune's quiet strength is that it makes the parts other industries cannot do without.”

Defence as a High-Margin Second Growth Engine

In February 2015 the group announced a joint venture with Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, to be based in India. A decade later, defence is a measurable part of the company. The Machinemaker reported on 7 May 2026 that Bharat Forge's new orders in FY26 were Rs 4,814 crore, of which defence contracts were Rs 2,816 crore, and that its defence order book stood at Rs 10,961 crore at year end. The same report notes a partnership between Kalyani Strategic Systems and AM General to supply cannons to the United States.

FY26 Financials and Balance Sheet Strength

Consolidated revenue for FY26 was Rs 16,812 crore, up 11.2%, and consolidated EBITDA was Rs 2,921 crore, up 5.9%. Standalone revenue was Rs 8,396 crore, standalone EBITDA Rs 2,312 crore, and standalone net debt-to-equity was 0.18 times. In the fourth quarter, standalone revenue was Rs 2,260 crore, with an EBITDA margin of 27%. Management said it expects nearly 25% revenue growth in its Indian manufacturing operations in FY27, subject to global stability, driven by an export recovery, inventory restocking, a recovery in North American truck production and order execution.

Patient Industrial Leadership and MSME Lessons

What MSMEs can learn: 1. Specialise, then export. Forging is a narrow craft; depth let the company serve global customers. 2. Follow the policy cycle. Defence manufacturing opened as policy shifted, and early movers built order books. 3. Keep the balance sheet light. A net debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18 times gives room to invest in downturns. 4. Invest in the region's skills. The Pune foundation reflects a belief that a stronger local workforce supports everyone.

Forging is not a glamorous business. It needs heavy capital, long approval cycles with customers, and an unforgiving attitude to quality: a crankshaft either meets the specification or it does not. Companies in this field are rarely rewarded by fashionable markets, but they accumulate something that is difficult to copy: a record of delivering to demanding customers over many years.

Independent editorial profile built from public reporting and the company's official biography.