HAL plans to create aerospace cluster

Building up a pool of trained manpower has been considered imperative

With plans on to restructure Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), efforts are underway to tap its expertise in order to build up India's aerospace capabilities.

Considering the long term needs of the aeronautical sector's growth, the expert group on restructuring of HAL, headed by B K Chaturvedi, former Cabinet Secretary and Member, Planning Comm-ission, has recommended the establishment of an aerospace university or a collaboration with some universities for expansion of the aviation sector's capabilities.

Building up a pool of trained manpower for the sector has been considered imperative. Such a varsity is expected to help meet some of the needs for manpower in the sector. S G Dhande, former Director, IIT Kanpur, said at a conclave: "Manpower challenge is a phenomena faced by the entire aerospace industry because of globalisation. We need to establish synergy between the Indian academia and aerospace industries in general and HAL in particular." Efforts are also on to develop the right models for HALRs s collaboration with institutions for research and on-programmes for industry-focussed post-graduate and doctoral degrees in aerospace technologies. It has also considered the feasibility of establishing the aerospace university.

HAL said that it aims to use its strengths with regards to the Indian aerospace industry and create an ecosystem for enhancing the capabilities of the sector.

The discussions included issues including domain-specific curriculum review, diversified and in-depth aeronautical courses to meet the industry requirements of manpower and greater interaction of industry think-tanks with academia.

In the recent past, HAL has signed MoUs with IIT Kanpur, IIT Roorkee and Defence Public Sector Chair at NLSIU, Bangalore for setting-up a faculty chair.