Aero India 2011 will provide an excellent opportunity to global aerospace majors as also to the Indian aerospace industry to showcase their technological achievements, products and to provide a peep into the futuristic technologies

The eighth edition of Aero India international air show is scheduled to be held from February 9 to13, 2011 at Air Force Station Yelahanka on the northern outskirts of Bengaluru. The air show is being hosted by the Defence Exhibition Organisation of the Indian Ministry of Defence in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Beginning with the first international air show held at the Indian Air Force (IAF) base in 1996, the biennial event has been growing steadily over the years and has today acquired the status of a ‘premier global aerospace exposition’. The seventh edition of the air show, Aero India 2009, witnessed participation by 593 exhibitors. These included 303 entities from abroad representing 33 different countries large and small as also 289 companies consisting of mostly the small and medium enterprises from the Indian aerospace industry. Apart from the exhibitors, the air show was patronised by as many as 55 overseas delegations including one from China. Over a decade ago, the second edition of the show i.e. Aero India 1998, had participation by a total of 194 companies. Of these, the domestic aerospace industry had fielded a minuscule number of 20, and that too dominated largely by the public sector. Hopefully, the momentum of growth in the level of participation would be sustained and the level of participation in Aero India 2011 would surpass all expectations.

Strategic Perspective

The global aerospace industry is inclined to gravitate to India attracted by the size of the aerospace market that the country has to offer over the coming decades. As per Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik, Chief of the Air Staff, Indian Air Force (IAF), 50 per cent of the equipment held on the inventory of the IAF is being or has been overtaken by obsolescence. Implicit in this statement is the warning that if appropriate action is not taken in time, there is serious possibility of the IAF being outclassed in the next war by the Air Force of an inimical neighbour Pakistan even when the country has been doddering on the verge of being classified as a “failed state”. To contend with the threat from the north-eastern border, China that has been acknowledged as an emerging global economic and military power, the capability of the IAF would have to be elevated to a completely new level. However, the recently promulgated statements from the political and military leadership indicates that the Indian Government has indeed been seized of the problem for some time and is now in the process of implementing plans for a major revamp of the IAF to not only correct the acute deficiency in air power but also to develop or acquire additional capabilities to meet with the new challenges in the future. Aviation assets of not only the IAF but those of the Indian Navy, the Indian Army and the Indian Coast Guard are also slated to undergo unprecedented transformation involving an investment over the next two decades on capital acquisitions alone, estimated officially to be of $100 billion (Rs. 4,50,000 crore).

While the global aerospace majors would understandably be the major beneficiary of this mammoth exercise entailing staggering levels of investment, the $30 billion (Rs. 1,35,000 crore) worth of business generated in India for domestic entrepreneurs under ‘offsets’ obligation would be of immense interest to the Indian aerospace industry, especially in the private sector.