India Wants To Build Planes, Gaps Still Run Deep
As the Civil Aviation Minister pitched aircraft manufacturing as India’s next Make-in-India leap, experts warned that enthusiasm may be outpacing capability.
The Gist
India's Ambitious Aircraft Manufacturing Initiative Faces Challenges
- India's Civil Aviation Minister announced plans for a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to develop regional aircraft, aiming to reduce reliance on imports.
- Experts question India's capability to manufacture commercial aircraft, citing a lack of necessary infrastructure, supply chains, and research investment.
- While the government pushes forward, the success of this initiative hinges on building a robust ecosystem and securing global partnerships for technology transfer.
When India’s Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said in Parliament earlier this year that India was “ready to design, manufacture and maintain aircraft,” it set off a ripple of excitement in the aviation sector.
Naidu said that the government was creating a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to develop regional transport aircraft, small to mid-sized aircraft designed specifically for short-haul routes, typically connecting smaller cities, remote locations, and regional airports, and to cut India’s dependence on imported planes. India’s airlines and regional connectivity operators will be the immediate customers.
Despite excitement surrounding this measure, experts are posing an important question: Does India actually have the capability to make commercial aircraft?
“We need to build an entirely new ecosystem for aircraft manufacturing. Market forces—not just ambition—will determine what type of aircraft makes sense. A detailed technical and demand analysis is essential to identify the right size and segment to build,” Bharat Malkani, chairman of Max Aerospace and Aviation, told The Core.
Homegrown Aircraft Push
The SPV will be a central coordinating body that will bring together multiple stakeholders across government, research institutions, private industry, and global aviation companies to build a domestic ecosystem for aircraft design and production.
The SPV will include the Ministry of Civil Aviation, public sector aerospace institutions such as Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL), along with private-sector manufacturers, state governments, and global players like Airbus and Boeing for technology transfer.
The government has described the SPV as a five-year roadmap exercise, with landmark projects such as the 19-seater Saras Mk2 — currently under development by National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) — expected to anchor early momentum. While the broad policy positioning is clear, key operational details such as the SPV’s ownership structure, funding mechanism, investment commitments, and production targets have not yet been publicly disclosed.
What motivated the government?
The initiative led by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) was driven by a combination of rapidly rising aircraft demand and the strategic risk of relying almost entirely on imports. Indian airlines have placed record orders — over 2,000 aircraft in the pipeline — making India one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets. Yet every aircraft, engine, and major system still comes from abroad.
Ambition Vs Capability
Building commercial aircraft is a big leap India is attempting. It requires global certifications, deep supply chains, and unforgiving safety standards. Despite multiple attempts over decades, India’s commercial aircraft dreams have moved little beyond proposals and prototypes.
“When we talk about qualifications, infrastructure, supply chains, and an ecosystem, we simply do not have that for commercial aircraft. What has really changed? Demand has grown, certainly. But capability? That remains the real question,” a senior aviation veteran with 40+ years of experience in the industry told The Core on condition of anonymity.
India today has more than 2,500 aircraft on order over the next decade, yet experts warn against confusing market size with manufacturing readiness.
“There are major supply-chain issues. And at a time when global demand is so heated, where will the required capabilities come from?” the veteran said. “Look at China: they developed the COMAC aircraft, but is it flying outside China yet? Even Brazil’s Embraer and Canada’s Bombardier took decades.”
So will the aircraft manufacturing plan succeed this time?
“To be honest, even in its current format, it is not going to succeed,” said Mandeep Sandhu, CEO of Airluxxis Aviation Services. “What we need to do is understand the entire value chain of manufacturing. It starts from the basics — design, R&D, and innovation.”
Missing Foundation
For all the political excitement, India’s aviation insiders keep returning to the same reality: the country is trying to build a skyscraper without pouring the concrete.
India can make many metal parts and machined components, but building a commercial airliner needs hundreds of highly specialised suppliers — for engines, avionics, composites, landing gear, and certified testing. These vendors don’t exist in India yet at scale, so the supply chain is the biggest gap.
“Then comes the engine problem. Even if India were to assemble a perfect airframe tomorrow, it would still have to import the most complex part from one of the three global makers — GE Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, or Rolls-Royce. No one else has cracked it, and India isn’t close,” Sandhu said.
Most Indian companies barely invest in R&D. “Some of them call a product ‘Indian-made’ when 70% of it is imported. That’s not manufacturing. That’s assembly,” the veteran added.
The numbers back that concern. According to Deloitte, India’s Gross Expenditure on Research & Development (GERD) is just 0.65% of GDP, far below the global average of 1.79%. By comparison, the US spends around 2.8% and South Korea roughly 4.5% of GDP on R&D.
The private sector’s role is also limited: industry accounts for only 37% of India’s R&D spend, versus 68% in the US and 75% in China — a gap that shows how far India must go to build a serious aerospace innovation pipeline.
And beyond building the aircraft, certification may be the steepest climb of all. Every commercial aircraft must survive years of testing and global safety approvals from agencies like the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
In India, design and manufacturing certification now falls under the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), updated through the Bharatiya Vayuyan Adhiniyam, 2024, which governs standards for aircraft design, manufacture, operation and export.
“I think we need to first have the spirit of the programme in place to get into issues. Certification is a good problem to have. Our primary problem is let's start something,” Bharat Malkani said.
The Hardest Obstacle
Sandhu argues that India’s industrial mindset is holding it back.
“The government has a role to play — no doubt about that. But the bigger players must take the lead. What holds us back is the entrepreneur’s mindset: ‘Do I have enough market in the country?’ That thinking is flawed,” Sandhu said.
Instead of focusing first on ecosystems and suppliers, Sandhu argues, India must start upstream — with design, technology development, testing, and innovation. That is the hard part, he said, and the part India has historically underinvested in.
Once India can design and prototype effectively, the supply chain can be built around that foundation. Without that, the ecosystem conversation is premature.
Where Should India Begin?
If India genuinely wants to build aircraft, experts said it must start the way every successful aviation nation did: by borrowing experience, like learning from countries that already know how to build an aircraft, before building its own.
But not everyone is pessimistic. Malkani believes India’s capability is unquestionable, provided it confronts the scale of the challenge honestly.
“We need to build a lot from scratch. The faster we recognise that and accept it, the faster we will succeed. We have some of the best engineering minds in the world. Look at the leadership across global aerospace — whether it's Boeing or Airbus, so many of them are Indians or of Indian origin,” Malkani said.
One view inside the industry is blunt — don’t waste years reinventing lessons others have already learned. Instead, use India’s massive aircraft order book as leverage.
“If we want results within 10–15 years, we need to bring in the technology. Get Airbus or Embraer to set up assembly lines with full transfer of technology. They have the planes and the expertise. We have the demand,” the veteran said.
Companies can start small: a 19-seater, a 40-seater, a 70-seater, or even a 100-seater.
“There is no FAA or EASA rule limiting aircraft to fixed seat counts, and India uniquely needs all categories — from short take-off aircraft for hill regions to 40–100 seat regional planes, to narrow-bodies like A320s and 737s, and eventually wide-bodies like A350s and Dreamliners,” Sandhu said.
Long Taxi To Takeoff
India’s aircraft dream is bold. It has economic logic. It has political momentum. “But manufacturing aircraft is one of the hardest industrial tasks in the world,” the veteran said. Even Western OEMs take close to a decade to certify new models.
India is still miles from replicating that ecosystem. The SPV may steer stakeholders in the right direction. Global partnerships may expand. Component manufacturing may grow. But turning this into a full commercial-aircraft industry is a long-haul project.
“India’s ability to build its own commercial aircraft will depend not on speeches, but on how much time, money, engineering depth, and foreign collaboration the country is willing to invest,” the veteran said.
