An opportunity too big to be missed!

India has the opportunity today to do in aviation what it did in the automobile industry in the eighties and nineties. In those two decades, a whole new industrial sector at a much higher level of technology was created. Though the need for a small car for a mass, low-cost market was first proposed in 1958, it was Indira Gandhi who first brought about the change in mindset required to successfully induct Suzuki in a joint venture with a public sector company Maruti Udyog.
With the escalating demands of national security in a dangerous neighbourhood, the country now needs to replicate similar success in aviation manufacturing - defence as well as civil. In parallel with the growth in defence needs, the huge growth in civil aviation also creates a large market for aviation technology and services. Moreover, as our labour costs rise and capabilities become more sophisticated, our industry needs to move up the value chain.
First, we need to recognise that technology resides in the minds of technologists, not in a set of drawings. Therefore, we need to look for the best and quickest ways to create a whole set of world-class technologists who can bring us to the cutting edge of technology over the next decade, and then keep us there.
Next, given the wide spread of technologies involved in aircraft development, there is need to spin off development and production of airframes, engines and avionics into separate entities - again on the lines existing in the major aircraft companies in Europe and Russia. This implies a significant restructuring and reorganisation of manufacturing majors like HAL, as well as creating many new organisations that should be joint ventures negotiated under the offsets programme.
Finally, the new capacity and capability must address both civil and military applications. That alone can overcome the uneven flow of orders that addressing only defence needs entails. The present restrictions on HAL, for instance, prevent existing capability from being adequately marketed and utilised by the civil aviation market.
09/11/10 Vijay Mathur/Business Standard/Sify

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Nov 2010