A day before Mirage 2000 crash in Bengaluru, IAF chief B.S. Dhanoa had hit out at HAL for blaming it for delays. Former officers agree with chief’s assessment.
While IAF has ordered a probe, there are indications that the aircraft did not take off, forcing pilots to eject. The black box holds key to investigation.
The Modi government has allocated Rs 5,500 crore to build the Next Generation Hardened Aircraft Shelters (NGHAS) on India's northern borders.
New Delhi: The air...
The repo rate cut should be interpreted as a pre-emptive measure to create a buffer, ensuring that the economy enters the forthcoming year with adequate liquidity.
Clean energy is “no longer the sideshow, it is the show”, BVR Subrahmanyam told the Odisha summit, warning India to lead the global shift or risk others’ tech dominance.
India is now the only country still operating the Jaguar, long retired by its original users, France in 2005 and the UK in 2007, and secondary operators like Oman, Nigeria and Ecuador.
None of Pakistan’s PMs has lasted 5 years. That the current PM has given Asim Munir 5 years shows that of all military dictatorships history has seen, Pakistan’s is most creative.
Stup*d article. The unofficial scam-gress media is trying to mislead. Close or privatise HAL or give an equal footing for private sectors to make india’s aeronautical sector advanced & strong. No organisation is indispensable for a nation.
HAL was purposefully kept weak by the scam-gress so that import can be made (with crores of commission to the dy-nasty making the bar employee the fourth richest political person in the world) citing no indigenous capability. Scam-gress made HAL hand in glove with the politicians alongwith the bureaucracy to make corrupt money by fleecing Indian tax payers of their money. Now when the present GOI tried to make all DPSUs accountable they start to shout along with scam-gress & commies (who were loyal to the porkis, soviets & chinks), sickulars, pseudo intellectuals, the corrupt & inefficient scam bakths along with the unofficial scam-gress media. Now they are trying to protect their corrupt & inefficient ways so that they can enrich themselves with the tax payers money.
Closing or privatising HAL is the only option. Privatisation is better than closing to protect the employee interests.
As usual, an excellent article by the Admiral. One expected Modi government to undertake many reforms relating to defence but its energies were dissipated fully in just implementing OROP! Parikar let Modi down badly when much was expected from him. Jaitely had no time for defennce and Nirmala has come on board too late. Hopefully, in its next term, if any, Modi will give defence ministry the utmost priority and sort out issues ranging from Chief of Staff to defence production including having a comprehensive re look at HAL.
HAL is too precious to allow it to fail. Like any other PSU, its functioning has deteriorated over a period of time and now needs a full overhauling. The Mirage accident is entirely a separate issue and has no linkage with either Rafale or poor working of HAL.
Unless professionals are put in charge of important public sector undertakings like HAL nothing will change. It is no surprise that private sector entities with dubious track record get preference over public sector undertakings even in defence field.
Everything is said in this article. The Admiral’s observation can be applied to the organization of the country’s defense and its functioning. It’s good to have given the admiral his point of view. It is not that of a bureaucrat or expert. It is that of a practitioner, of a man who has seen, experienced and lived, with his men and women, on the ground the organizational and functional inconsistencies of the country’s military policy.
Instead of dwelling on and blaming on what is now past, can positive concrete steps and suggestions be proposed for action on a very high fast track implementation. Finances will be no problem. Easing of mindsets and flexibility / objectivity is called for. Let someone, competent, come forward. All will take him in arms. Time plan needs to be half of what is normal in the entire process. I am capabilty in all operations will be no problem.
Capable people (the writer is a good example) must be entrusted to manage H.A.L So many retired greats are leading a life of of frustration and helplessness. Their brains must be tapped. Long back, senior industrialists were requested to work as Honorary Chairmen, not any more. Collaboration with those foreign companies who are ready to provide at least 25% manpower for a project can do wonders.
An excellent article. However, I think that ‘Aerospace Industry’ is not an appropriate term. Aeronautical and Space research are distinctly separate activities. Space research had visionaries like Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, Missile Research had Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and research in Nuclear Technology was pioneered by Dr.Homi Bhabha. However, research in aeronautical engineering is still an orphan. Successive governments have neglected R&D in this field and looked for short term solutions by resorting to assembly from imported kits and glorifying it as transfer of technology or by way of encouraging direct imports. Whereas we are thinking in terms of Mangalyaan Mission, we are still not able to design aircraft engines. The neglect of Kaveri project is stark pointer in this respect. When we make high value purchases of defence equipments, offset arrangement is insisted upon. A significant part of the offset largesse should go R&D activities. However, offset norms, even though liberalised to a significant extent, still neglect R&D needs. Para 3.1 of the Defence Offset Guidelines in the DPP, Appendix D, stipulate six methods( sub paras a,b,c,d,e &f) of offset. Out of these four ( a,b,c&d) relate to manufacture and servicing and two (e &f) relate to investment in DRDO for research activities. Whereas multiplier benefits are provided for investment in DRDO research, the rules stipulate that minimum 70% offset has to be made in four categories (a) to (d) above. Here the word ‘minimum’ should be replaced by ‘maximum’.
The government is clearly fixated on crony capitalists. whatever HAL may be today – it is clearly the responsibility of the government mismanagement , contributed to in no small measure by the IAF mismanagement. It is not that some government corporations do not work reasonably well – they do. That then begs the question – if the government cannot run HAL – how does it run the country. If it believes it is running the country well it can apply the same formula to HAL. Regardless of the many questions the foregoing issues raise, it was criminal vis a vis the countries interests to (i) forgo the transfer of technology for the Rafale and (ii) hand over the business to a firm / individual / crony which has so far ditched the navy and is bankrupt (in one of his many avatars) and has no experience in the business. Clearly this is not the way a country goes about strengthening the countries defenses.
Stup*d article. The unofficial scam-gress media is trying to mislead. Close or privatise HAL or give an equal footing for private sectors to make india’s aeronautical sector advanced & strong. No organisation is indispensable for a nation.
HAL was purposefully kept weak by the scam-gress so that import can be made (with crores of commission to the dy-nasty making the bar employee the fourth richest political person in the world) citing no indigenous capability. Scam-gress made HAL hand in glove with the politicians alongwith the bureaucracy to make corrupt money by fleecing Indian tax payers of their money. Now when the present GOI tried to make all DPSUs accountable they start to shout along with scam-gress & commies (who were loyal to the porkis, soviets & chinks), sickulars, pseudo intellectuals, the corrupt & inefficient scam bakths along with the unofficial scam-gress media. Now they are trying to protect their corrupt & inefficient ways so that they can enrich themselves with the tax payers money.
Closing or privatising HAL is the only option. Privatisation is better than closing to protect the employee interests.
Tata should take over HAL
As usual, an excellent article by the Admiral. One expected Modi government to undertake many reforms relating to defence but its energies were dissipated fully in just implementing OROP! Parikar let Modi down badly when much was expected from him. Jaitely had no time for defennce and Nirmala has come on board too late. Hopefully, in its next term, if any, Modi will give defence ministry the utmost priority and sort out issues ranging from Chief of Staff to defence production including having a comprehensive re look at HAL.
HAL is too precious to allow it to fail. Like any other PSU, its functioning has deteriorated over a period of time and now needs a full overhauling. The Mirage accident is entirely a separate issue and has no linkage with either Rafale or poor working of HAL.
Unless professionals are put in charge of important public sector undertakings like HAL nothing will change. It is no surprise that private sector entities with dubious track record get preference over public sector undertakings even in defence field.
Everything is said in this article. The Admiral’s observation can be applied to the organization of the country’s defense and its functioning. It’s good to have given the admiral his point of view. It is not that of a bureaucrat or expert. It is that of a practitioner, of a man who has seen, experienced and lived, with his men and women, on the ground the organizational and functional inconsistencies of the country’s military policy.
Instead of dwelling on and blaming on what is now past, can positive concrete steps and suggestions be proposed for action on a very high fast track implementation. Finances will be no problem. Easing of mindsets and flexibility / objectivity is called for. Let someone, competent, come forward. All will take him in arms. Time plan needs to be half of what is normal in the entire process. I am capabilty in all operations will be no problem.
Capable people (the writer is a good example) must be entrusted to manage H.A.L So many retired greats are leading a life of of frustration and helplessness. Their brains must be tapped. Long back, senior industrialists were requested to work as Honorary Chairmen, not any more. Collaboration with those foreign companies who are ready to provide at least 25% manpower for a project can do wonders.
An excellent article. However, I think that ‘Aerospace Industry’ is not an appropriate term. Aeronautical and Space research are distinctly separate activities. Space research had visionaries like Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, Missile Research had Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and research in Nuclear Technology was pioneered by Dr.Homi Bhabha. However, research in aeronautical engineering is still an orphan. Successive governments have neglected R&D in this field and looked for short term solutions by resorting to assembly from imported kits and glorifying it as transfer of technology or by way of encouraging direct imports. Whereas we are thinking in terms of Mangalyaan Mission, we are still not able to design aircraft engines. The neglect of Kaveri project is stark pointer in this respect. When we make high value purchases of defence equipments, offset arrangement is insisted upon. A significant part of the offset largesse should go R&D activities. However, offset norms, even though liberalised to a significant extent, still neglect R&D needs. Para 3.1 of the Defence Offset Guidelines in the DPP, Appendix D, stipulate six methods( sub paras a,b,c,d,e &f) of offset. Out of these four ( a,b,c&d) relate to manufacture and servicing and two (e &f) relate to investment in DRDO for research activities. Whereas multiplier benefits are provided for investment in DRDO research, the rules stipulate that minimum 70% offset has to be made in four categories (a) to (d) above. Here the word ‘minimum’ should be replaced by ‘maximum’.
The government is clearly fixated on crony capitalists. whatever HAL may be today – it is clearly the responsibility of the government mismanagement , contributed to in no small measure by the IAF mismanagement. It is not that some government corporations do not work reasonably well – they do. That then begs the question – if the government cannot run HAL – how does it run the country. If it believes it is running the country well it can apply the same formula to HAL. Regardless of the many questions the foregoing issues raise, it was criminal vis a vis the countries interests to (i) forgo the transfer of technology for the Rafale and (ii) hand over the business to a firm / individual / crony which has so far ditched the navy and is bankrupt (in one of his many avatars) and has no experience in the business. Clearly this is not the way a country goes about strengthening the countries defenses.