HYDERABAD: Telangana is steadily positioning itself as a strategic centre for India’s future aerospace ambitions by fostering a robust ecosystem anchored in research and development, advanced manufacturing, and certification capabilities, said IT Minister D Sridhar Babu on Friday.
Speaking at the inauguration of a two-day national conference on “Changing Scenario in Aerospace: R&D, Manufacturing and Certification,” organised by the Aeronautical Society of India in Hyderabad, the minister underscored that leadership in aerospace would depend on how effectively regions grate these three critical pillars.
“Aerospace is no longer confined to manufacturing aircraft and machines. It has become a reflection of a nation’s strategic capability, technological strength and confidence,” Sridhar Babu said.
With aerospace majors like Boeing and Airbus projecting demand for 42,000 new aircraft over the next two decades, Telangana is aiming to capture a share of this growth. Hyderabad, he said, is strengthening its precision engineering capabilities, defence manufacturing base, and MSME network to seize this opportunity.
However, he pointed out that India still relies heavily on foreign testing and certification facilities, resulting in higher costs and delays of up to two years. He called for Union government support to build a globally competitive certification ecosystem in Hyderabad, noting that over 1,500 MSMEs in the city are already integrated into global aerospace supply chains.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) former chairman S Somanath said India must transition from being merely a “capability builder” to a global leader, identifying limited large-scale manufacturing as a major bottleneck. He emphasised scaling up production to build globally competitive enterprises.
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Director General N Kalaiselvi linked aerospace growth to the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision, pointing to rising aviation demand and the need for about 3,300 aircraft in the near future, while urging innovation and scale. Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) former chairman G Satheesh Reddy highlighted the shift in warfare towards space, cyber and drone domains, stressing the importance of continuous technological upgrades.