A flight to new heights

The successful test flight of an aircraft made by the Mahindra group is a significant move up the manufacturing value chain by India.
Though India has a burgeoning aerospace industry, no private company has ever manufactured an aircraft. The Mahindra plane, a five-seater, is designed to operate in bare minimum environments and thus ideal for a country like India where infrastructure can often be less than adequate.
The significance of this project lies not merely in the fact that India has finally built an aircraft. What is notable is that along with a private company, the Indian public sector and research outfits, chiefly the National Aerospace Laboratories, too worked on it.
This public-private partnership can be a win-win situation. It may be too early to talk about a military-industrial complex in the Indian context, but it is apparent that private sector participation in strategic areas — weaponry, space and aviation — is expanding.
16/09/11 Deccan Chronicle

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: New Sep 2011