Tending to the needs of 150 Bharat yatris, staff and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the setting up and dismantling of the nightly campsite is a nine-hour job each day.
The band of 150 walkers is currently in Karnataka leg of 3,570 km journey from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. They range from 27 to 58 years old, and nearly 30% are women.
For an industry globally classified as hazardous, protections such as health insurance and a provident fund for workers are necessities. In Sivakasi, they remain elusive.
The industry forecasts exports are set to grow 16% in 2025-26, boosted by surplus domestic production and a drive to push into 26 underserved global markets with strong potential.
Indigenisation level will progressively increase up to 60 percent with key sub-assemblies, electronics and mechanical parts being manufactured locally.
It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.
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