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Kerala urged to join in aerospace ventures

Kochi: Kerala-based industries have an opportunity to do business worth more than Rs.10,000 crore by 2012, if they follow a specific roadmap, A. Sivathanu Pillai, chief executive and managing director of Brahmos Aerospace Thiruvananthapuram Limited (BATL) and Chief Controller (Research and Development) of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said.

Presenting his vision of aerospace and defence industries in Kerala at a workshop held at the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) here on Thursday, he said the State was poised for an industrial revolution. “There is a dynamism that is now prevailing over the State to see that from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram many things are happening,” he said, citing the key industries in the State.

Making a strong case for industry participation in defence and aerospace sectors, Mr. Pillai said the defence market for the next five years would be US $ 45 billion. “Meaning there is business worth Rs.12,000 crore for Indian defence industries. Opportunities are available in aerospace; structures like launchers and bridges; software related to aerospace and defence, maintenance, repair and operating supplies; and materials like Titanium alloy. Fifty percent of the NRI (non resident Indian) remittance of US $248 billion is from Keralites, making a strong case for a State industry consortium to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the defence ministry to work for at least Rs.2,000 crore.”

“We have a huge titanium mineral reserve. If we set a production target of 10,000 metric tonne finished titanium alloy (which has huge demand) every year, perhaps on a joint venture with some country and with an investment of Rs.4,500 crore, it can yield a turn over of Rs.5,000 crore.

The State will get Rs.1,000 crore from that. Kerala also has potential for a large biotechnology laboratory and pharma industry for herbal drugs.

Another area is nanotechnology. As bio-info-nano technologies are trying to converge and growing at a rate of 50 per cent a year, there is scope for a convergent technology R&D centre and a bio-nano industry complex as the State is rich in biodiversity and biotechnology incubation centres have come,” he said.

Future systems being more autonomous and intelligent, there was a need to have an R&D centre in smart manufacturing as well.

Also, CIAL could have an aircraft maintenance R&D centre with new generation training tools such as simulation tools, virtual reality and virtual aircraft as part of the proposed aerospace park.

An aerospace and defence industrial complex offering a comprehensive solution for space and defence sectors could make Kerala an alternative destination to Bangalore as an aerospace hub, Mr. Pillai said.

Earlier, he outlined the contribution of Brahmos Aerospace to the nuclear, space and defence departments. “When we took over (Keltek and merged it in Brahmos) it was about Rs.10 crore and by 2013, it will be worth over Rs.1,000 crore and will also provide employment to an additional 500 people,” he said.

Mr. Pillai commented the contributions of Keltron in the manufacture of underwater mines, underwater communication systems, sonobuoys, titanium structures for sensors and towed arrays and said soon a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) involving Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL) and Keltron would be signed.

BEL in Kochi would be the focus as everything would get integrated here.

“Already, more than 20 Kerala industries are contributing to NPOL… Only from sensor related activities, are we expecting business worth Rs.1,000 crore in the next five years. All our ships will soon have Indian sensors,” he said.

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