India’s Aerospace Hub Dream Hinges on Digitisation: TAS Chief

Digitisation is fast emerging as a critical requirement for the Indian aerospace and defence sector as the industry seeks to scale operations and establish itself as a global manufacturing hub. At a symposium organised by the Indian Foundation for Quality Management (IFQM), Tata Advanced Systems (TAS) Chairman Banmali Agarwala underlined that India’s aerospace industry must urgently embrace digitisation and technology absorption to compete internationally.

"Digitisation is extremely important. It is amazing how this industry, particularly the aerospace industry, is not digitised. You do not have drawings which are digitised. One is still dealing with pretty old-fashioned drawings, because in many cases, the basic platform itself, which undergoes changes, is rather old, and therefore there are just changes that are made. So it's not digitised," Agarwala said during a panel discussion on strategies, opportunities, and challenges in building India as a global aerospace hub.

He added, "So we need to have an approach of digitisation so that we can scale up."

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Emphasising the importance of manufacturing at scale, Agarwala pointed out, "It would not be enough just to make a few prototypes. But if we've got to figure out, how do we make things at scale, it's not enough just to have one Tejas...we need to have at a scale."

He further highlighted that digitisation will strengthen the supply chain and enable large-scale production.

Agarwala also stressed that Indian companies must not only source technology but also absorb and enhance it. "We do bring in technology, but our ability to absorb technology and then build further, rather than constantly being dependent on technology coming from the outside is also very crucial," he noted.