A mechanical engineering graduate from Hubballi, Ankush Koravi, who took the less trodden path, has now come up with the country’s first indigenous pistol. He is among the select few to get invited to the Defence Expo being conducted by the Union government at Gandhinagar in Gujarat this month.
Addressing presspersons in Hubballi on Tuesday, Ankush Koravi, who is now the CEO of Astr Defence Private Limited, said that he will be showcasing the indigenously developed ATAL Modular Pistol at the Indian Pavilion of Defence Expo organised by the Ministry of Defence.
He said that he had showcased his assault rifle at the Defence Expo in 2020 and had test fired the weapon at DGQA (Defence) firing range.
Mr. Koravi said that his new product ATAL Modular Pistol had three inbuilt safety mechanisms making it the safest carry pistol in the world. The patent for its unique safety mechanism is pending.
He said that the ergonomics of the pistol has been tailor-made for Indian user and Indian conditions and it could be reconfigured to adapt to various applications like duty use, carry use and conceal use.
“It is designed with minimal parts for reliability. It features an alloy steel slide, polymer frame with three magazine capacity (15, 17 and 21) options. It has been designed for two calibres, 9x 19 mm for duty use and 0.32 inch for licensed citizens,” he said.
Elaborating on his four-year journey of setting up a defence startup with a scalable production unit, Mr. Koravi said that now the startup has its own manufacturing facility, licensed and approved, at Kadanakoppa in Kalghatgi taluk near Hubballi.
“The product will have ‘Made in Hubballi’ etched on it as every part of it has been indigenously designed and developed,” he said.
Major (Retd) Anand C.S. and Subedar (Retd) Ningappa, who were among the ex-servicemen who guided and helped Mr. Koravi in developing the product and improving it, said that it was great to see a young entrepreneur from Hubballi developing high quality arms, with his base as Hubballi.
President of Karnatak Chamber of Commerce Vinay Javali said that it was heartening to see a young entrepreneur from Hubballi being invited for the Defence Expo and the KCCI will extend all necessary assistance to him.
KCCI office-bearers, Executive Director of Astr Lokesh Koravi, HDMC councillor Rajanna Koravi and others were present.
