Private sector in plane production welcome, but mindset change needed, too

The end of HAL's automatic monopoly is a good thing, and it is welcome news that the ministry has moved so quickly on the recommendations of a report submitted in March

India has long planned to build an indigenous fifth-generation fighter plane, in a project called the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, or Amca. Since 2010, when the first feasibility study for a twin-engine stealth plane was launched, it was assumed that it would be manufactured primarily by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), the state-owned firm headquartered in Bengaluru. The Ministry of Defence this week, however, approved an execution model for the Amca programme, which says that the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Aeronautical Development Agency will supervise the project, but include both the private and public sectors in its execution. In other