PM Modi meets Rolls-Royce CEO as British engineering giant eyes India expansion

Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on Wednesday met
Rolls-Royce CEO Tufan Erginbilgic, signalling intent to deepen the British engineering giant’s footprint in India. The two sides discussed ways to expand engineering, manufacturing and innovation partnerships, with the move aligning with PM Modi’s vision of Viksit Bharat.

The prime minister shared visuals from the meeting on X, formerly Twitter. “It was wonderful meeting Tufan Erginbilgic, CEO of Rolls-Royce, earlier today. We welcome Rolls-Royce’s enthusiasm towards scaling up its activities in India and partnering with our innovative and dynamic youth,” he wrote in the post.

Meanwhile, Rolls-Royce India also shared a photograph from the meeting. The motor giant noted that Erginbilgic discussed how the company is scaling up to support India’s long-term development goals.

It was wonderful meeting Mr. Tufan Erginbilgic, CEO of Rolls-Royce earlier today.

We welcome Rolls-Royce’s enthusiasm towards scaling up its activities in India and partnering with our innovative and dynamic youth. https://t.co/ZWj3EcQR7c

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 11, 2026

“Our CEO Tufan Erginbilgic met Hon’ble PM Shri @narendramodi today to discuss how Rolls-Royce is scaling up to be a part of Viksit Bharat, including expanding its GCC to be the largest globally, co-creating complex manufacturing and building high-value engineering capabilities,” the company said in a separate post.

The timing of it all

It is pertient to note that the meeting is coming against the backdrop of Erginbilgic’s earlier remarks in October 2025, when he said Rolls-Royce has “deep ambitions” to develop India as a home market. While speaking during his visit to Mumbai as part of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s delegation, the Rolls-Royce CEO had underlined India’s importance across air, land and sea domains.

“We have deep ambitions to develop India as a home for Rolls-Royce, building on our strong and successful partnership,” Erginbilgic had said at the time. He added that the company’s technologies across civil aviation, defence and energy position it to help build in-country capabilities and support India’s push towards a
Viksit Bharat.

Rolls-Royce has maintained that it aims to play a crucial role in India’s Atmanirbhar Bharat journey by expanding local partnerships, investing in talent development and increasing supply chain sourcing from India. Recently, the British company inaugurated its expanded Global Capability and Innovation Centre in India, which it has described as being positioned to become its largest capability hub globally, supporting civil aerospace, defence and power systems businesses.