Bengaluru: Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Ananth Kumar said that he would be leading an Aerospace and Aviation Business Delegation comprising of Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce, key industry captains and state government officials to the Centre before the Parliament session closes on December 16.
Ananth Kumar, while delivering his keynote address at the Conclave organised by Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) on Indian Aerospace and Aviation industry in Bengaluru, urged the BCIC to prepare a comprehensive wish list listing out specific pain points affecting this mission critical industry vertical. “I urge the Chamber to provide me with specific actionable points affecting the growth of this important sector vis-à-vis infrastructure bottlenecks, taxation policy, incentives, exemptions, offset policy hurdles and the likes so that I will personally lead a Business delegation to Delhi and push these issues with various ministries involved so that this industry flies high in the near future as it has tremendous potential to multiply manifold in just a few years of encouragement by the government.”
Minister Ananthkumar said that in a very short span of time, India has emerged as one of the largest aerospace – aviation markets in the world and the global aerospace aviation majors are eyeing India to set up manufacturing, design engineering, MRO facilities leveraging India’s low labour cost, young and talented pool of engineers, technologists, designers, etc. “Development and progress in the aviation and Aerospace sector touches a deep chord with our Government, because of two primary reasons: one it is a cutting edge technology demonstrator which immediately leapfrogs us into the community of technologically advanced nations, and the other and more importantly it provides significant opportunities for employment creation and revenue generation”.
Moreover, he said that during his term as Civil Aviation Minister the Open Sky Policy was announced.
The minister also emphasised the fact that his government fully recognises this sector for the potential it holds and to that extent it has been providing regular policy interventions including: Raising FDI limit to 100% which in itself has caught the attention of the global players. Revising and updating the Defence Procurement Policy and making it more industry friendly and transparent; re-looking at Offset arrangements to ensure that we can leverage this to the maximum and are able to get real cutting edge technology against purchases that are made in this sector.
Meanwhile, Thyagu Valliappa, President, BCIC as assured the Minister that it will put forward a compendium of issues faced by the Aerospace and Aviation industry to be submitted to the union government.
The Conclave which was addressed by a galaxy of Aerospace and Aviation industry veterans saw over 200 delegates participating in the day-long event.
