HAL Proposes Formation Of Indian Aeronautics Commission

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is suggesting the formation of Indian Aeronautics Commission and bring various organizations and institutes currently functioning under different ministries under one umbrella. 

“This will ensure greater cohesion, synergy, understanding and speeding-up decision making in aerospace related activities”, Dr. R.K. Tyagi said in his key-note address delivered at the 9th International Conference on “Energizing Indian Aerospace Industry” organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS) here.

He also said that it is important to exploit FDI and Joint Venture opportunities for development of indigenous industry in India’s defence and aerospace sector. “Also, our industry must have greater say in selecting technologies for future platform developments and our offset focus should be on acquisition of cutting edge technology”, he added. 

Dr. Tyagi touched upon other issues such as tapping Diaspora, supply chain management and securing strategic investments in defence and aeronautics sector. He also felt that R&D culture in India needs revival.

“We need long term strategic capability to drive design and development in our industry rather than merely concentrating on manufacturing and production targets. This is possible if we ensure the right funding mechanism for R&D, bring program management expertise at par with leading global companies and make efforts towards skill development and talent acquisition”, he added. 

Dr. Tyagi pointed out several initiatives taken by the Government in the recent months such as enhancement of FDI in Defence to 49 %, opportunities for private industry into Defence production, re-allocation of civil aircraft manufacturing to the Dept of Defence Production, creation of Defence technology fund to encourage innovation, etc. “All these augur well for the aerospace industry in India”, he said. 

The two day conference, being attended by representatives from nearly 100 Indian defence industries, focuses on defence technologies in aerospace sector, design and development of aerospace systems, indigenization and developing partnership with industry both public and private sector, nurturing of small and medium scale industries involved in aerospace sector, the offsets clause in relation to the Indian aerospace industry, and the procurement policies with an aim to further refine them.