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The Swadeshi Technocrat
"You have to always increase the value that you offer to your customers, and as an Indian manufacturer, this can be achieved by investing in technology development and import substitution," says Munjal Sharad Shah, Managing Director, Paras Defence & Space Technologies
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It was the summer of 1997 when Munjal Shah decided to join his father, Sharad Virji Shah, in their small-scale engineering company, which specialised in providing import substitution of critical engineering components. Cut to 2025: The modest enterprise has evolved into one of the country's leading players in Defence & Space Engineering, with a market capitalisation of over INR 6,400 crore. The father-son duo has proven their track record over the past 40+ years, developing technologies for rockets and missiles, space and space research, naval systems, land and armoured vehicles, electronic warfare and surveillance, and electromagnetic shielding with Paras Defence & Space Technologies (formerly Paras Flow Form Engineering Limited).
For Munjal, the country's defence sector commands a long-term commitment to indigenous development, requiring significant research and development. "In areas where technology development from scratch might take longer than the need of the situation, we partner with the OEMs of such advanced technologies and serve the customer with world-class technologies, made in India with very high indigenous content," shares Munjal Sharad Shah, Managing Director, Paras Defence & Space Technologies.
Research and innovation are deeply embedded across the company, leading Paras to offer 50+ products such as submarine periscopes, hyper-spectral imaging systems for space, ground-to-space and space-to-space telescopes, border defence systems, critical electro-optics systems for various platforms, laser-based air defence systems, drone detection and jamming systems, anti-drone technologies, electromagnetic protection solutions, hydrogen-powered drones, and drone cameras. When asked about his biggest entrepreneurial learning to date, Shah strongly emphasises the value offered to customers.
"You have to always increase the value that you offer to your customers, and as an Indian manufacturer, this can be achieved by investing in technology development (innovation and R&D) and import substitution," he notes. In 2025 so far, the company has bagged an INR 142.31 crore contract from DRDO arm CHESS to develop a high powered anti-drone laser system; signed an MoU with Israel-based HevenDrones to establish a joint venture for manufacturing logistics and cargo drones in the country.
