Bengaluru: “The state government is setting up the Centre for Excellence in Aerospace in partnership with Dassault Systemes, which is country’s first. The industry-driven aerospace park will be located at Devanahalli and will have a European Union ecosystem. It will provide necessary skills to make graduates more employable," said Mr Priyank Kharge, who is IT-BT and tourism minister.
Speaking on the policies of the state government to “Ideate, Innovate and Invent”, he said that the government has encouraged partnerships with R&D centres and overseas partners, like the Dassault Systemes, a French Multinational company. He was speaking on “Visionary Leadership Summit – Relaunch India 2017” at the Indian Institute of Management- Bengaluru on Saturday.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Startup India in January 2016, but did not release any funds. Karnataka has allocated Rs 11 crore in the last one year to fund start-ups. Rs 200 crore is available overall, of which 7,000 start-ups are being supported by us. Bengaluru is the only city to have an ecosystem to incubate networks, right from college, with 182 student groups so far," he said, adding that just signing MoUs will not help increase employability of professionals.
“Karnataka needed to go beyond its success in IT and ITeS and do something disruptive. We did not want to remain the hub of back-office operations of the world. We have emerged as innovation leaders – from agriculture to aerospace,” Mr Kharge said.
IIM-B Incharge Director Prof. R Srinivasan said, “The government has granted 110 acres of land for expanding the IIMB. Make in India initiative is very relevant to the city, but we need to ensure that 'Relaunch India' too is put into action.”
On the sidelines, he said, “The land has been acquired near Jigani in South Bengaluru. This is very close to Electronics City and the corporates there, which is good. We are yet to decide on the courses to be offered. The campus will be close to the forest area.”
Tejas is future ready: ADA chief
In a first, the two-seater trainer variant of 'Tejas' combat jet will be offered to potential customers for test rides during Aero India 2017, a move viewed as a precursor to the country's efforts to break into the multi-billion dollar aerospace market.
Two trainer variants of 'Tejas' will be on display at the five-day air show with DRDO-ADA taking a decision to allow potential customers to test-fly the jets. The trainer was flown by Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha in May 2016, followed by the Chief of Air Staff of Turkmenistan, after the military jet was inducted by the Indian Air Force in July 2016.
Commodore C.D. Balaj (Retd), Director, Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), said the military jet has completed all milestones ahead of Final Operational Clearance, including air-to-air and air-to-ground attacks, demonstration of air-to-air refueling capability, and firing a beyond visual range missile.
"In short, it is future-ready," he added. He sought to play down outgoing Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba's statement that "present LCA does not meet the carrier capability required by the navy", saying the naval version was only a technology demonstrator and restricted to Mark-I version.
Explaining about number of test flights completed over the last year, he said, "We will convert this project into a product and that will happen once we do an arrested recovery (by mid of this year). The moment we do that, we will carry the learning into Mark II which has already been designed. Once the product is available, the user will take it. So I think we have to deal with the Chief of Naval Staff's statement towards Mark I as rejected."
Dr S. Christopher, Director General, DRDO, said, "We have levels of R&D development, particularly when we are doing technology development. Whatever has been spoken is for Mark I, the Mark II programme still exists. As far as the Indian government is concerned indigenous efforts are supported fully."
