Hidden Stories: How Pune nurtured the ‘parachute woman of India'

Indian Express

5 hours ago

When India announced the launch of Operation Sindoor against Pakistan, Pune-based Smita Yeole was out of the country. What she saw stirred her in a deeply personal way, for Smita was in the business of manufacturing a product closely linked to war: parachutes.
Since 2004, Mumbai-based Oriental Weaving and Processing Mills, which was founded by Smita's late father, Vishwanath Chalke, has been making parachutes that are used for dropping flares, bombs, drones, cargo, missiles, and humans from aircraft. 'There are hundreds of varieties of parachutes,' says Smita, the managing director of the company, adding that there are underwater parachutes and parachutes that drop 16,000 kg tanks from an aircraft in high-altitude regions such as Leh.
Oriental supplies parachutes to the armed forces, and in 2009-10, it became the first private Indian company to export parachutes internationally. While the company manufactures more than 50 products, there is no website listing these.
'I cannot disclose details because these are customer-specific and related to a country's defence. I have a lot of customers who are against each other, so I cannot share one person's matter with another,' she says. The entrepreneur supplies parachutes to the Israelis and the UK, among others.
Smita lives in a ground-floor apartment full of comfortable furniture and artefacts from around the world. The drawing room looks out at a converted outdoor dining space, and the sounds of the kitchen meander through conversations. As Smita talks about enjoying cooking and gardening, the domestic everydayness is a striking contrast to the high-action life-and-death scenarios in which she has made her mark.
A Mumbai girl, Smita, who calls herself a 'textile person', had worked in a few companies before joining her father's business. 'I started at the bottom of the ladder,' she says. In 1988, Smita had an arranged marriage with Ajay Yeole, a metallurgist and gold medal-winning College of Engineering, Pune, alumnus, who worked at Tata Motors and came to Pune.
'For one year, I was sitting at home and doing nothing. I told my husband, 'Boss, I cannot stay at home like this. You better do something or I will have to keep shuffling between Bombay and Pune',' she recalls.
Ajay took it upon himself to start a small aluminium foundry in Uttam Nagar in 1990. While helping him, Smita learned the foundry business from the workers, the consultants and the day-to-day working. By 1997-98, it became the top aluminium foundry in Pune.
Smita brought the same attitude to her father's business in 1999-2000. Blessed with a hands-on husband and supportive mother-in-law who took care of their two sons, she began to shuttle between Mumbai and Pune. 'I spent Mondays, Tuesdays, half of Wednesdays, and half of Fridays working with my husband at the foundry. Thursdays used to be for my father's textile business in Mumbai. On Saturdays and Sundays, I used to be at home,' she says.
Smita's father had pioneered making parachute fabric in India in the 1970s, after the India-Pakistan war. 'India was importing those fabrics, and my dad indigenised these,' she says. She was visiting the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment in Agra with him when a director told her, 'You have made this fabric. Why don't you stitch it up for me?'
This was the first time that a defence lab was asking somebody outside the lab, or a non-defence production company, to make parachutes. Smita, who read drawings like a book because of her foundry experience, took up the task.
The initial challenges included finding tailors to gaining knowledge. Besides fabric and cords, a parachute needs tapes, cotton yarn, webbing and metal parts that are sourced from all over India. All components have to be sent for testing to the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies before they are applied to the product. Gradually, the company established vendors and pipelines and fine-tuned its systems.
Today, the company operates out of three locations – Gujarat, where the thread is woven; Mumbai, where the fabric is processed with a centralised lab and head office; and Agra, where the parachute fabrication is done.
'We bagged orders one after the other. I have taken transfer of technology for the SU-30, i.e. the Sukhoi aircraft, the LCA aircraft, the Hawk and the MiG, among others. I make all these parachutes for the defence. Earlier, I used to supply only to India, now I supply globally,' she says.
Smita regularly attends exhibitions abroad, meets people, learns and incorporates the developments in her work. Once, former Union minister Smriti Irani had referred to Smita as the Indian woman manufacturing parachutes. Yet, at meetings with suppliers in India, she says, she often meets people who want to 'speak to Mr Yeole'.
Smita, who is also the vice-president of the prestigious Independence-era organisation, The Synthetic and Art Silk Mills Research Association, which is linked to the Ministry of Textiles, is optimistic about the future.
'Earlier, parachute fabric was made on an ordinary loom; now, it is made on water jet looms. The quality has improved manifold,' she says. AI has also made it 'easy to assimilate data', she adds.
'An abiding challenge is the availability of the yarn for making the fabric. It is all imported. When India becomes self-sufficient in that, the country will be on solid ground,' says Smita.
Ironically, Smita has never used a parachute herself. 'Maybe…one day I have to do it. It is on my bucket list,' she says.
Dipanita Nath is interested in the climate crisis and sustainability. She has written extensively on social trends, heritage, theatre and startups. She has worked with major news organizations such as Hindustan Times, The Times of India and Mint. ... Read More