Defence Ministry inducts IAF Deputy Chief Air Marshal S B Sinha in HAL board

NEW DELHI: Meeting a long-pending demand of Indian Air Force, the government has inducted one of its senior officer in the board of state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

The move to induct IAF Deputy Chief Air Marshal S B Sinha will help the force to have more say in the functioning of country's only aerospace firm and force's largest supplier, Defence Ministry officials told PTI here.

The IAF, which is the largest customer of HAL, had been demanding for a long time to have its representatives in the HAL Board of Directors headed by its Chairman R K Tyagi, they said.

The first meeting of the HAL board with its new member was held recently in which it took a number of decisions such as creating a skill development body, spending more money for research and development activities were taken, they said.

Almost all the aircraft projects of the IAF including the Su-30 MKI, Light Combat Aircraft Tejas and multirole transport aircraft are with the HAL.

The IAF and HAL were not on the same page recently over the issue of Pilatus basic trainer aircraft project as the air force favoured imports for meeting it's requirement to train rookie pilots whereas the HAL wanted to develop it indigenously.

The government is also going ahead with its plans to disinvest 10 per cent stakes from the aerospace PSU with order books worth over 1 lakh crore.