Hyderabad: The missile centre of India?

Aerospace and Defence industry is one of the most important sectors in India. In the newly formed State of Telangana there is an entrenched and well established aerospace and defence eco system. Telangana as of now has 1000 plus SMEs in the aerospace and defence sectors.

It has four dedicated aerospace parks and 50 general engineering parks in which large number of precision engineering companies work. The helicopter cabin used by the US President Donald Trump has been manufactured in TS by Sikorsky.

The State has also majors like Rolls Royce and Airbus starting their manufacturing facilities and assembly units here and started exporting out of our Hyderabad units. Regional Air Transport support the mega textile parks, mega food parks, it parks, hard ware parks, electronic clusters and other economical parks across Telangana.

Dwelling at length on the rapid progress achieved by Telangana in various fields such as aviation, drones, aerospace and defence, Telangana achieved a tremendous 14.9 per cent GSDP growth in the year 2018-19 and the State stood at the top on World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Rankings two years in a row.

Telangana's industrial policy TS-iPASS was rated as the best in the country and the cosmopolitan city offered best infrastructure and a pleasant weather almost throughout the year which has been witnessed during the recent held International forums.

Hyderabad is considered as the missile center of India with several public sector defence labs and missile manufacturing facilities located here. Telangana is targeting a share of 15-20 per cent market share in the aerospace and defence sector in India.

The author in this article sense of about 1,000 Aerospace and defence- related small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), four aerospace parks in the city and more than four dozen general engineering parks adds to its strength in the domain.

Hyderabad has become one of the strong aerospace and defence manufacturing ecosystem with over a dozen major DRDO defence labs and defence PSU establishments.

Hyderabad is a Home for organizations like Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), RCI, ARCI and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and multiple R&D labs; Hyderabad presents the ideal eco-system

The Telangana State is encouraging have leading OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) for manufacturing and sourcing critical components, and subsystems from Hyderabad based local industries.

Global aviation majors have also established their Technology development, engineering and R&D centers in Hyderabad," the presence of four dedicated aerospace parks in Hyderabad and 50 general-engineering parks with quality infrastructure for precision industry. Further two more aerospace parks are proposed in the State.

Relatively low cost aerospace manufacturing & MRO hub for Asia-Pacific and Middle East is providing a competitive edge. Hyderabad is a seismically safe city as it falls under seismic zone-I.

Hyderabad is recognized for IT/ITES, electronics, hardware, bio &Nano-tech industries, which contributes to the supply chain of the sector. Aerospace and defence sector is also no exception to this.

Telangana Government is in the process of preparation of a policy for defence and aerospace sector. The Telangana government has taken a number of initiatives to develop a Defence & Aerospace segment by developing an exclusive Hub, Aero Skills Academy in collaboration with Aerocampus Aquitaine, France and Aerospace Incubation Centre in collaboration with IIT, Hyderabad.

The Aerospace SEZ at Adibatla, Ibrahimpatnam Mandal of Rangareddy spread of 500 acres is fully functional. Telangana Government came forward with an effective dedication to provide adequate encouragement by way of Tax Incentives, Capital Subsidies in Aerospace and Defence Startups.

Telangana's unique is that we have good ecosystem and also a large pool of skilled and industry ready work force that made Telangana a front runner in the industry. Telangana State had tie ups with renowned institutions to offer need based aerospace and defence certification courses at affordable cost.

A week ago, President of Boeing International, Michel Arther and other team members met Telangana Information Technology Minister K. Taraka Rama Rao and Boeing team shared their delight on the progress made by Boeing's manufacturing facilities in Hyderabad since last 5 years.

Further Boeing would like to expand the popular Apache and Chinook helicopter manufacturing at Hyderabad. Mr. Michel requested the IT Minister to establish a centre for Boeing's technical and engineering purposes at Hyderabad.

Telangana Government is thinking to establish an international aerospace university in partnership with private entities, industries and International Academic Universities in order to cater the needs of the Industry.

Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India has been allocated Rs 3,797 crore in this year's Budget which is 2.62 per cent higher than Rs 3,700 Crore which was allocated in the 2019-20 fiscal year.

The Central Government has allocated Rs 465 crore for its regional connectivity scheme Udan, which is 3.1 per cent higher than what was allocated in 2019-20. Whereas for defence sector, the Union Government on last Saturday allocated Rs 3.37 lakh crore as the defence budget for 2020-21, which is a hike of only 5.8 per cent over the allocation for this sector for the current financial year.

All these signify the importance of aerospace and defence sector activities to equip ourselves and to meet the unexpected challenges. In turn these sectors will generate employment opportunities in Telangana State.

(The author is Advocate & Research Associate, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad)