Address At The Inauguration Of Seminar On Indian Aviation On The Global Horizon

The role of civil aviation in National Development

I am delighted to participate in the inauguration of Seminar on Indian Aviation on the Global Horizon as a tribute to JRD Tata as we are celebrating his 100th birth anniversary. On this day I remember the contributions of JRD whose first love was aviation. With his enterprising spirit and crystal clear vision he led the birth of civil aviation in India in 1932 when there were a very few airlines in the business in the world. It was the historic flight from Karachi to Mumbai via Ahmedabad that heralded the birth of Air India. I am sure, remembering JRD Tata through this seminar will definitely provide the vision and direction for the Indian Aviation Industry which is now at the cross roads. My greetings to the organizers, corporate heads, members of the aeronautical community, aviation planners, scientists, technologists and distinguished guests.

JRD Tata had a mission

JRD?s life was full of accomplishments. He had the unique opportunity of spending equal years before independence and after independence. This experience made him an industrial giant of India, who made great impact in the national development in multiple fields. He pioneered civil aviation in the subcontinent, funded Homi Baba?s TIFR to catapult India and scientific advancements, initiated the family planning movement in 1971 even before it became official government policy and bankrolled efforts to record and preserve for posterity, country?s priceless folk arts. Thus JRD represented and exalted an idea of Indianness ? progressive decision benevolent and compassionate, even before anyone thought of such needs. It is his vision and dream and above all his persistent commitment that he has nourished and nurtured Indian Airlines and Air India. He pioneered establishment of Asia?s first cancer hospital in Bombay in 1941. His innovations in India?s hotel and tourism industry and corporate management gave momentum for industrial development in India. The Tata steel industry group diversified into chemical engineering, locomotives and vehicles.

Evolution of National Aeronautics Policy

The President of Aeronautical Society of India informs me that evolution of National Aeronautics Policy 2004 is getting shaped. I am sure this policy will bridge multiple members/groups of aeronautical community such as Air India, Indian Airlines, Private Sector Airlines, Armed Forces, Aeronautical R&D laboratories, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., production centers, maintenance centers and academia who teach aeronautics and conduct research. All these institutions are spread over in many ministries. The policy should set a agenda for civil aviation partners to design, develop, lead to production and market 150-200 seat commercial jet. Core competence for accomplishing this mission exists in multiple departments and industries.

Technological advances

I would like to narrate an interesting incident. I visited a school in New Delhi where the children had created a painting exhibition on my life, based on the events described in Wings of Fire. They took me around and showed me the gallery where series of pictures of Satellite launch vehicles were depicted first one tiny SLV-3, next slightly bigger ASLV, next bigger PSLV and then the biggest GSLV. Suddenly one girl asked me uncle which one of these rockets you built? Did you build all of them? I showed the SLV-3 and told her that I built this. She quipped and laughed and told me what uncle you built this small one. Through this event, the child indirectly gave a nice message of the growth of technologies, which had taken place during the last twenty years, since SLV-3 was built. At that time, the SLV-3 had the first generation guidance control system and the vehicle was just 30 tons carrying a payload of 40 kg, whereas the GSLV with its advance guidance control systems weighs 350 tons capable of carrying nearly two tons of payload. This is the type of technological growth, which has taken place in the last twenty four years. During this period ISRO has built the PSLV and GSLV. The Defence R&D has built a larger version of AGNI and its variants, Prithivi and its variants, Supersonic cruise missile BRAHMOS which are now operational. Tejas (LCA) has been developed and three aircraft are continuously undergoing flight trials. Advance Light Helicopter (ALH) of HAL is also getting ready for induction. I am witnessing the technological upgradation of the generation. I am sure with this launch vehicle capabilities and associated technologies of Indian Space Research Organisation will be able to carryout the lunar mission by 2007. The technological base created for LCA, ALH, Missiles and RPVs could be deployed for the development of a 120 seater-cum-freighter transport aircraft to meet the requirements of defense and civil aviation. I would like to mention how sometimes technology denial acts as an inspiration to the scientists and production team.

Combating the Technology Denials

I still remember, in 1998, when India became a nuclear weapon state, the US companies had terminated the contract on joint development of flight control systems for LCA. How did we overcome the challenges of technological denial regime? We formed the national teams for composite wings and for the flight control systems. With time bound mission mode project management system, experts drawn from multiple organizations positioned as one single development team, we have achieved a remarkable development success. This type of technological denial inspires our scientific community and opens the door for faster development. When we see LCA flying, we are seeing our Indian aspirations of realization of the doctrine that We will win and master the skies.

Similarly, when we look at the great contributions of JRD Tata, we find that one single human being has enriched many fields of societal needs including education, health, industry with his innovations. This city has seen the great life moving around for nearly 90 years. TATA has become a brand and a household name in India and its presence is felt in many countries. The growth of TATA industries in the last 100 years has been phenomenal and is poised to grow further leading to many Tata MNCs abroad.

Our National mission - challenges

Our nation is going through a major challenge of uplifting of 260 million people who are below the poverty line. They need habitat, they need food, they need health care, and they need education and employment and finally resulting into a good life. Our GDP is growing at more than 5% per annum. Whereas, the economists suggest that to uplift the people below poverty line, our economy has to grow at the rate of 10% per annum consistently, for over a decade.

Integrated action: To meet the need of one billion people, we have the mission of transforming India into a developed nation. We have identified five areas where India has a core competence for integrated action: (1) Agriculture and food processing (2) Reliable and Quality Electric power, Surface transport and Infrastructure for all parts of the country. (3) Education and Healthcare (4) Information and Communication Technology (5) Strategic sectors. These five areas are closely inter-related and if well done would lead to national, food and economic security. The essential needs of the country should provide continuous supply of water, power, road, sanitation, healthcare, and education with right skills, employment and sustained income for all the families.

Essential Connectivities: The integrated methods, which will bring prosperity to rural India are: the physical connectivity of the village clusters through quality roads and transport; electronic connectivity through tele-communication with high bandwidth fiber optic cables reaching the rural areas from urban cities and through internet kiosks; knowledge connectivity through education, vocational training for farmers, artisans and craftsmen and entrepreneurship programmes; these three connectives leading to economic connectivity through starting of enterprises with the help of banks, micro credits and marketing the products.

Each village clusters depending upon the region will cost between Rs.100-200 crores. After initial short-term employment during construction etc., we may have to plan for initiating actions for providing regular employment opportunities for 3000 people. If the industrial parks are marketed well, they can generate employment opportunities in service and support sector for about 10,000 people. We need to promote entrepreneurship in the rural area.

Employment generation through entrepreneurship: To reduce the migration of the workforce from rural to urban areas, employment generation in rural areas should focus on teaching proper modern skills and entrepreneurship in educational institutions and providing necessary opportunities for sustained self-employment, instead of looking for employment in central and state governments. The integrated chain of connectivities among various developmental components in a time bound manner along with venture capital funding or micro-finance will generate large scale employment leading to rural prosperity.

Electricity Generation from Municipal Waste

Efficient and environmentally clean disposal of garbage has always been a major technological challenge. While being a threat to the environment, mounting garbage is also a rich source of energy. The potential for converting this waste into usable energy, which will eliminate a major source of urban pollution, was realized by one of our innovative organizations- Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) of DST which helped in developing a completely indigenous solution for the processing of waste into a source of fuel. This fuel could, in turn, be used for generation of electricity through mini plants. Two entrepreneurs in Andhra Pradesh adopted the technology with refinement and established two independent plants in Hyderabad and Vijayawada generating over 12 megawatts of electricity, which is being supplied to the State Grid. We acknowledge the combined effort of our scientists, technologists and the industries in making technology socially useful, environmentally appropriate and economically significant. India needs thousands of mini power plants using municipal waste. This can be a mission of corporate houses, small-scale industries and social upliftment organizations.

Since, I am addressing the audience of Indian and international aerospace industries and the champions of Indian industries, I would like to discuss with you, how you all can contribute in a bigger way for the national development in the manufacturing, infrastructure, services, training and tourism sectors.

Civil Aviation industry

From the day Wright brothers flew the first aircraft in 1903, disproving Lord Kelvins theory that heavier than air flying machines are impossible, the aviation has taken leaps and bounds in the last 100 years with tremendous technological inputs. In India, Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, Intermediate Jet Trainer Sitara, Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruva and SARAS have established core competence in design, development and production of aeronautical systems.

It is time that, we grow the civil aviation industry so that they make competitive world-class aero systems, networked with R&D organizations and international aerospace industry partners. The country with one billion population when it is attempting to become a developed nation there will be need for growth in aviation industry in a big way. Similarly, there will be substantial business in the Asian region also. To capture this growing market, we have to act now in development and production of medium size passenger aircrafts, establish industry for manufacturing of spare parts, establish maintenance industry and training institutions. Everywhere the focus should be on competitive customer satisfaction.

Law of development

How to become competitive? I was studying the development patterns and the dynamics of connectivity between nations, especially in trade and business. As you all know, the world has a few developed countries and many developing countries. What is the dynamics between them and what connects them? Developed country has to market their products in a competitive way to different countries to remain as developed country. The developing country to get transformed into developed country; they too have to market their products in other countries in a competitive way. Competitiveness has three dimensions: quality of the product, cost effectiveness and supply in time. Indeed this dynamics of competitiveness in marketing of products by developing and developed countries determines the law of development. We have to see our integrated missions for national development with competitiveness index in mind.

Convergence of Technologies

The technologies are converging together to provide a quality of service (QOS) with the reduced infrastructure setup. The information technology and communication technology have already converged leading to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Information Technology combined with bio-technology has led to bio-informatics. Now, Nano-technology is knocking at our doors. It is the field of the future that will replace microelectronics and many fields with tremendous application potential in the areas of medicine, electronics and material science. When Nano technology and ICT meet, integrated silicon electronics, photonics is born and it can be said that material convergence may happen. With material convergence and biotechnology linked, a new science called Intelligent Bioscience will be born which leads to a disease free, happy and more intelligent human habitat with longevity and high human capabilities. Convergence of IT, aerospace and Nano technologies will emerge and revolutionize the aerospace industry. This technological convergence will enable building of cost effective low weight, high payload, and highly reliable aerospace systems.

Six important Aeronautical Missions

On this important day, let us resolve to launch the following six important aerospace missions:

1. Air India, Indian airlines and Private airlines should have the mission of becoming competitive in the world airline business.  
2. Design, develop, produce and market 150-200 seat passenger jet aircraft.  
3. Establishment of industry consortium for manufacturing spare parts for different types of aircrafts.  
4. Setting up of a world-class aircraft maintenance base which can cater to the needs of large variety of aircraft maintenance with full customer satisfaction for the Asian region.  
5. Establishment of state-of-the art aeronautics training centers for pilots, navigators, and maintenance engineers for Asian region.  
6. Develop single stage reusable launch system with mass addition capability to increase the payload capability to 12 to 15% of launch weight compared to the present 3 to 5%.

Conclusion

India can become economically strong through global competitiveness, knowledge power and technology. This will lead to large return on investment and high growth rate in revenues. The institution we build should be scalable and deployable with high quality and values. We have to constantly improve employee productivity and loyalty through participative management, employees satisfaction and a good working environment and also through effective governance and empowered management systems. In the new integrated management structure we need creative leaders whose leadership styles move from commander to coach, manager to mentor, from director to delegator and from one who demands respect to one who facilitate self-respect.

May God bless you.

Questions and Answers

1. Sir, You have described the interesting episode of the interaction between Prof Satish Dhawan, your teacher and yourself. You should come to our state and address the children in our villages.

Ans. That is my profession and I always address the children wherever I go.

2. You made a point about how to build missile also it is very easy to buy an aircraft? When it comes to building aircraft there are many anti competitive forces in the country. How do we deal with the situation?

Ans. Air craft is a man rated system. It takes time to design, develop, produce and make it flight worthy. We have to carry out lot of simulation to test the system. I had experienced similar problems when LCA was being developed. Today I am happy to say three aircrafts are in the air and undergoing stringent test. If we persevere we can definitely overcome the anti-competitive forces.

3. How to create scientific temper among the Indian citizens?

Ans. The Scientist should become ?civic scientists? and ensure that the results of science are reaching the common man. If it is constantly done and the people see the impact of science on their day-to-day life scientific temper will definitely follow.

4. You mentioned about the competition and quality No.1 revenue earner in the world is tourism. India has never recognized the value of tourism as a wealth generator. In a country of billion people our tourism arrival is not even two million per year. We have to take this in a mission mode and the tourism ministry must be empowered to increase the tourists atleast by five times within the next two years. How can we do that?

Ans. During my visit to abroad in one of the countries they wanted to increase the tourism by five times in the next five years. When this task was taken up I found that all the Ministers and other functionaries started working on the infrastructure needed for making this mission possible. They were looking for increasing road capacity, airline capacity, hotel capacity and ground transportation capacity simultaneously. This sort of collective approach is needed for accomplishing such missions.