Indra’s Drishtikona (Viewpoint)

India vs. China in Aviation: Why should India compete?

Posted : April 15, 2007 at 2:32 pm [IST]

It is not only piracy; China is far ahead of India in every area.

India might have begun work on building India’s spacecraft to the moon. But the Chinese have done that already.

India invested in many units of HAL in billion in building latest technologies and capacities, but India will take at least a decade longer to develop the country’s own passenger jet. It looks silly to read that in the 11th Plan (2007-12), Indian government and aerospace scientists want to return to the drawing board to design a 70-seat passenger jet that can fly up to 2,000 km, say from Mumbai to Kolkata. India’s first indigenous light transport aircraft, the 14-18-seater Saras, is still undergoing test flights, after over a decade in development amid criticism over its excess weight and fuel consumption. As reported, ‘the plan for a ‘Made-in-India’ commercial jet has received a thumbs up from a panel of India’s top scientists in the steering committee on science and technology for the 11th Plan. Their report to the Planning Commission, submitted in December 2006, estimated the aircraft project would cost around Rs2, 035 crore over a decade. http://www.livemint.com/2007/04/10014501/MadeinIndia-passenger-jet-ge.html

As reported in Business week, China expects to start making homegrown large commercial aircraft by 2020 raising the possibility of future competition for Boeing and Airbus in the country’s booming market for new planes.

And then India has now successfully tested the 3,500-km range Agni-III ballistic missile last Thursday, taking an important step towards building a minimum credible nuclear deterrence against China. However, Agni-III still falls well short of the ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) that China has. It looks awful to read report about Agni-III providing India the option to strike even Beijing and Shanghai. Why should one think like that? In stead perhaps, it is better to have tie up with some developed country for this and use our resources for commercial jets and fighters of our own that drain our resources in billion.

As reported, China has a plethora of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles, ranging from the fully operational 8,500-km CSS-4 ICBM to the new road-mobile 11,270-km DF-31A ICBM, which even sends shivers down US spines. China also has SLBMs (submarine launched ballistic missiles) like JL-1 and the under-development JL-2 (8,000-km range). Consequently, every major city in India is within the strike envelope of Chinese missiles.

I find the competitive edge of China in these areas because of their aggressiveness in attempting whatever is necessary for the nation and getting that attained. Unfortunately Indian leadership has been lacking on that count since Nehru’s days. A culture of timely completion of all national projects must come first.
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FDI touches $15 bn in 06-07
‘From Boeings to laptops, it’s all in India’

- Indra

Category: Government Policy/Administration |