HSL's new CMD Rear Admiral Chandrasekharan Raghuram (R).
New Delhi/Visakhapatnam: Former Indian Navy officer Rear Admiral Chandrasekharan Raghuram (Retd), took charge as the chairman and managing director of Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) on July 2, taking over one of the country’s oldest defence shipyards. His appointment takes place at a moment when the shipyard is expanding beyond its traditional refit business into submarine construction and larger naval contracts.
He succeeds Ganti Venkateswarlu, HSL’s director (shipbuilding), who had held additional charge of the top post since the Public Enterprises Selection Board recommended Raghuram’s name at its meeting on January 28, 2026. The recommendation was subsequently cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.
Before moving to HSL, Raghuram was serving as assistant chief of materiel, a role responsible for the upkeep of key naval platforms.
Who is Rear Admiral Chandrasekharan Raghuram?
Raghuram was commissioned into the Indian Navy on November 10, 1989, and went on to serve for more than three and a half decades. He was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal in 2017. He studied at the Naval College of Engineering in Lonavala, at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom, and later at the Naval War College and the National Defence College, building a career that spanned afloat operations, equipment life-cycle support, research and development, warship design, combat-system integration and instructional postings.
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At sea, he served aboard the frontline warships INS Gomati and INS Trishul, including as part of the commissioning crew of the latter, and gained further experience through postings with the Naval Dockyard, the afloat support team for the navy's Talwar-class frigates, and the Weapons and Electronics Systems Engineering Establishment (WESEE).
His command and staff appointments include commanding officer of INS Valsura, principal director of electrical engineering at the integrated headquarters of the defence ministry’s navy wing, command electrical officer at the headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command, chief staff officer (technical) at the headquarters of the Western Naval Command, and senior roles at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai and at naval headquarters.
All about Hindustan Shipyard Limited
Founded in 1941 as the Scindia Shipyard and nationalized in 1952, HSL is the country’s oldest shipyard and, by scale, its second-largest after Cochin Shipyard. It operates a covered building dock capable of handling vessels of up to 80,000 deadweight tonnage.
The company holds Mini Ratna Category-I status under the defence ministry's department of defence production, a classification reserved for consistently profitable central public sector enterprises. The status gives HSL’s board greater autonomy over capital spending, joint ventures, subsidiaries and technology partnerships without seeking government approval for each transaction, a freedom that matters given the scale of work now on its order book.
Submarine work remains the yard’s most strategically significant activity. HSL has carried out extended medium refits of the navy's Kilo-class submarines, including INS Sindhukirti, INS Vela and INS Vagli, and is currently refitting and modernizing INS Sindhukirti. It earlier retrofitted INS Sindhuvir before the vessel was transferred to Myanmar.
The shipyard is now preparing to move beyond refit work into submarine construction in partnership with Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, part of a wider effort to deepen India's domestic submarine industrial base and cut reliance on foreign yards.
Beyond submarines, HSL builds diving support vessels with a high proportion of indigenous content and delivered INS Dhruv, India’s first indigenously built ocean surveillance ship. Its order book also includes a fleet support ship contract for the navy worth close to ₹19,000 crore, among the largest shipbuilding deals placed domestically, and the yard is upgrading its infrastructure with a slipway extension and a 300-tonne Goliath crane, work that was expected to be completed by May 2026.
HSL taps global market
HSL has also been building an international profile. It has held talks with the Vietnam People’s Navy on potential submarine refit work, has engaged with Myanmar following the Sindhuvir transfer, and has discussed defence cooperation with the Philippines, part of a broader push to position India, and HSL in particular, as a maritime defence exporter in the Indo-Pacific.
Domestically, the shipyard signed a memorandum of understanding with Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers in February 2026 to jointly pursue a large national shipbuilding programme.
The appointment comes as HSL’s finances have improved markedly. The company posted a record profit after tax of ₹118.82 crore in 2023-24, its highest-ever production value, having moved from a loss-making position in earlier years.
Raghuram takes charge of a yard with more financial headroom than it has had in years and a full pipeline of strategically sensitive work, and his task will be to convert that turnaround into sustained delivery on submarine construction, warship building and the government's wider push for self-reliance in maritime defence manufacturing.
