Rear Admiral Chandrasekharan Raghuram, VSM (Retd), has taken charge as Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) in Visakhapatnam. A former Assistant Chief of Materiel in the Indian Navy, he succeeds Captain Ganti Venkateswarlu. With over 36 years of naval service, he now leads one of India’s key defence shipyards.
Rear Admiral Chandrasekharan Raghuram, VSM (Retd), has taken charge as Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) in Visakhapatnam, stepping into one of the most strategically significant roles in India’s defence public sector.
A Long-Awaited Handover
Rear Admiral Raghuram succeeds Captain Ganti Venkateswarlu, HSL’s Director (Shipbuilding), who had been holding additional charge of the CMD’s post. The transition follows a recommendation of Rear Admiral Raghuram’s name by the Public Enterprises Selection Board earlier this year, and subsequent clearance from the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. Before taking over at HSL, he served as Assistant Chief of Materiel, where he was responsible for the maintenance of key naval platforms.
A Career Built Across the Navy’s Technical Backbone
Commissioned into the Indian Navy on 10 November 1989, Rear Admiral Raghuram brings over three and a half decades of service to his new role. He was conferred the Vishisht Seva Medal in 2017 in recognition of his distinguished service, and is an alumnus of the Naval College of Engineering, Lonavala, Cranfield University in the UK, the Naval War College, and the National Defence College.
Over the course of his career, he built expertise spanning afloat operations, equipment life cycle support, research and development, warship design, combat system integration, and instructional postings. He served onboard the frontline warships INS Gomati and INS Trishul – including as part of the commissioning crew of the latter and gained further specialisation through postings at the Naval Dockyard, the Afloat Support Team for Talwar-class ships, and WESEE.
His command and leadership appointments include Commanding Officer of INS Valsura and Principal Director Electrical Engineering at Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy). He has also held senior technical and staff roles as Command Electrical Officer at Headquarters Eastern Naval Command, Chief Staff Officer (Technical) at Headquarters Western Naval Command, and postings at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai, and Naval Headquarters.
The Shipyard He Now Leads
Hindustan Shipyard Limited is one of India’s oldest shipbuilding establishments, founded in 1941 and brought under government ownership in 1952. Today, it is the country’s second-largest shipyard after Cochin Shipyard, with a covered building dock capable of handling vessels of up to 80,000 deadweight tonnage.
HSL holds Mini Ratna Category-I status under the Ministry of Defence’s Department of Defence Production.
As the higher of the two Mini Ratna tiers, this status gives HSL’s board greater financial autonomy, including higher spending limits on capital expenditure, joint ventures, subsidiaries, and technology partnerships without requiring prior government approval for each decision. In practical terms, this allows the yard to move faster on infrastructure upgrades, contracts, and partnerships, which is a meaningful advantage given the scale of projects currently underway.
Submarines,: The Shipyard’s Strategic Core
Submarine work remains HSL’s most strategically significant capability, and one of the few such capacities among Indian shipyards. The yard has carried out extended medium refits of the Navy’s Kilo-class submarines, including INS Sindhukirti, INS Vela, and INS Vagli, with the medium refit and modernisation of INS Sindhukirti currently in progress. HSL had earlier carried out the retrofit of INS Sindhuvir ahead of its transfer to Myanmar.
Looking ahead, the shipyard is preparing to expand beyond refit work into submarine construction itself, in partnership with Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited – a move aimed at deepening India’s domestic submarine industrial base and reducing reliance on foreign yards.
Beyond Submarines: Indigenous Builds and Global Outreach
HSL’s portfolio also includes specialised vessels such as Diving Support Vessels built with a high proportion of indigenous content, and it delivered INS Dhruv, India’s first indigenously built Ocean Surveillance Ship.
The shipyard has been steadily expanding its international footprint. It has held discussions with the Vietnam People’s Navy on potential submarine refit work, opening a possible entry point into the Southeast Asian maintenance market, and has engaged with Myanmar following the earlier retrofit and transfer of INS Sindhuvir.
Talks have also been held with the Philippines on defence cooperation, part of a wider push to position India and HSL in particular as a maritime defence exporter in the Indo-Pacific region. On the domestic front, HSL signed an MoU with Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers in February 2026 to jointly pursue a large-scale national shipbuilding programme.
A Financial Turnaround
The shipyard’s operational trajectory has shifted markedly in recent years, moving from a loss-making entity to a profitable one. In FY 2023-24, HSL posted a record profit after tax of ₹118.82 crore alongside its highest-ever production value, underscoring a broader turnaround in its financial and operational performance.