Former Indian Navy engineer Darsitha Babu, who worked on India's first indigenously built aircraft carrier, is now plotting a civilian career in the marine industry after a chance introduction to Metstrade last year set her on a new path.
Babu spent a decade in the Indian Navy's engineering cadre, including a stint on the INS Vikrant aircraft carrier project, launched in 2022, and work on strategic submarine production quality assurance. She joined through the National Cadet Corps as a teenager, drawn in by a visit to the Indian Naval Academy at age 13.
"I visited the Indian Naval Academy at the age of 13 and was attracted to the uniform, the discipline and the way they talked and behaved," she said. "That planted the seed to join the defence services."
After finishing her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, she chose a short service commission in the Navy's engineering cadre over a corporate job, committing to a minimum of ten years' service. She later took a master's diploma in naval architecture within the Navy.
When that service came to an end, Babu and her family decided to move to the Netherlands last year, drawn by its standing as a hub for shipbuilding and the marine sector. She enrolled at TIAS School for Business and Society in Tilburg for an International MBA focused on agentic AI, and has just completed the course, graduating in December.
It was at the Impact Investment Summit in Rotterdam last year that a company founder suggested she visit Metstrade. She did, and it made an impression.
"I had attended trade shows back home, but nothing of this scale, it was a big experience," she said.
Babu attended the Women in the Marine Industry International Panel & Networking Breakfast, then visited the Young Professionals Club, where she spoke with Henk de Vries, former CEO of Koninklijke De Vries Scheepsbouw and director of Feadship, about propulsion, including a Feadship superyacht that uses hydrogen fuel. She also met a naval architect founding his own yacht company, learned about The Magenta Project, met a female mechanical engineer from the UK, and took the Young Professionals Club tour.
Later in the show she sat in on ICOMIA's round table discussion on using data to create smarter marinas, a topic close to her own naval research proposing predictive maintenance using an AI deep machine learning process. She also met Hanna Dąbrowska, Technical Director of the Water Revolution Foundation.
"For me it's not just about the scale of Metstrade, but also the people who are available to talk, spend time with you, give insights and share their journey," she said.
The connections made there inspired her to launch her own tech and engineering consultancy, 51 HQ, though she describes it as still early days, having done consultancy work for one client so far. She also wants it to help mentor former forces personnel into new opportunities, though it is not intended to be a main source of income for now.
She is currently job hunting for a full-time employed role, ideally as a programme or technical project manager on new builds, while acknowledging that having no experience in the yachting industry has been a hindrance.
Babu argues military leavers are often underestimated.
"Military people are trained in how to take care of ambiguous, uncertain and very complex things," she said. "From my observation military trained people become more productive as the challenges rise."
She is registered for Metstrade again this year, looking forward to experiencing the full programme, accessing the Young Professionals Club and making new contacts.
