A first sure step from the old Mess Sec of Hostel3, IIT Bombay..

It was very satisfyling to note India's most dynamic and cool defence minister (from Goa), Manohar Parrikar, (was the former Mess Secretary of Hostel 3 at IIT Bombay) is a B Tech from one of the most prestigious technical institutes of the world, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Parrikar has initiated the first steps at planning to start the manufacture, from design and prototyping of fighter jets in India from end of 2016 -17. This will naturally be followed by design and manufacture of commercial planes.

This first step was what India needed badly..

This is bad news for Europe and United States as their aircraft companies had already gained the upper hand in the defence and commercial aviation industry world over, often in unethical ways, which includes fighter jets and armaments, commercial planes like Airbus and Boeing and their different variants.

If Indian space technology industry could design cryogenic engines which can take upto 2.5 T payload to space (experiments for the 4.5T payload into space is underway, waiting for maturity) and carry out inter-planetary expeditions spanning at least 200 million kilometres non-stop over 10 months across the solar system at lowest costs in the world, designing planes that needs to be afloat for just a couple of hours at the most and a distance of couple of thousand kms at speeds a fraction of what is achieved in space, is just chicken feed for Indian scientists and space technologists ..

A leader to give direction to Indian aviation industry

It is this confidence that Indians can manufacture high technology aviation products from within the country which needs to be reinforced among Indian corporates, both in public and private sector, which is the need of the hour. Indian scientists and technologists are craving for that confidence and the necessary political leadership in this direction and Manohar Parrikar, the able technocrat Indian Defence Minister is the right guy who can give the needed leadership to bridge that gap.

India already has a huge pool of technical manpower that can design advanced rockets and aerodynamic structures. India already has 14,000 engineers who are working at Indian Space research Organisation (ISRO) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratories across the country, two organisations that have brought laurels for the country.

What India lacked was the right political leadership in the fighter and commercial jets planes manufacturing. We should believe in ourselves and understand that we are miles ahead of Europe and China in space technology and related rocket technology.

Being an effective political leader ..

In the coming years, due to better affordability of the population for air travel, air passenger traffic is going to boom, new airports will be coming across the B and C class cities, the new aviation policy and the entry of very competitive private sector breaking government monopoly in the aviation market in the country, the demand for commercial planes is going to boom to thousands of jet planes annually.

When we have the technology, why should we depend on foreign companies, who are much inferior to India's ISRO and DRDO, to manufacture for us and drain away our foreign exchange ?

If India does not immediately use indigenous R&D to exploit this demand by making planes with indigenous developed technology, we are going to face a huge drain of foreign exchange and poor development in all related and allied areas like supply chains, hospitality, transportation sector in the country.

Being from the technical side and smart at it, Manohar Parrikar is the saviour for the Indian aerospace industry, both military and commercial. The first step taken today at a meeting in Pune to announce such a dream is indeed a small step, but a sure and firm step for a thousand if not million mile journey.

Partnering with the private sector in the country and getting more central government organisations than just the limping Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, taking up the responsibility of taking India to the forefront of the aviation industry is a step definite to bear fruits in the long run. Someone has to bell the cat and someone should surely do it, lest India be left behind. That is the last thing any Indian would want to.

Having led the world for all of history till 300 years back and back on track to take the global reins in another fifty years, India's global leadership in the area of science and technology is inevitable.

The only way to break the back of the western noxious machinations against the developing world in defence area is to start with, developing indigenous capability in the area of fighter and commercial jets, Parrikar knows this very well.

God bless India and the world abundantly and God bless its people to give diligent, pious, peaceful, vigilant, altruistic and effective leadership to the world !

George.