Aviation Minister Scindia holds talks with US aerospace giants on bolstering alliance with India

PTI, Apr 30, 2022, 8:22 AM IST

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia held discussions with American aerospace giants on further strengthening collaboration with the industry in India.

Scindia arrived here on Thursday for the first leg of his visit to North America and began his engagements with discussions with New York-based technology-powered, global air mobility platform Blade.

On Thursday, he also interacted with members of the Indian diaspora during a session and reception hosted by Consul General of New York Randhir Jaiswal.

Scindia’s engagements on Friday began with a round table hosted by the US-India Business Council. The roundtable, attended by senior industry leaders, focussed on “ways to strengthen” collaboration between India and the US across the aviation sector.

“Had a productive interaction with members of @USIBC from the aviation community. Spoke about the growing focus & opportunities in regional connectivity & urban air mobility in India,” Scindia tweeted.

Later, he met vice president at aerospace and defense giant Raytheon Technologies Ambassador Paul Jones and Senior Vice President at American aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Rick Duerloo.

“Discussed potential collaboration for enhancing the civil aviation infrastructure ecosystem in India, including setting up MROs and furthering our GAGAN project,” Scindia tweeted, making a reference to the GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation, a Space Based Augmentation System (SBAS) jointly developed by Indian Space Research Organisation and Airports Authority of India to provide navigational services over Indian FIR (Flight Information Region).

Scindia also had a detailed discussion with vice president at Sikorsky Hamid Salim on deepening Lockheed Martin’s engagement with India, “including developments in the helicopter sector and setting up offset and MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) facilities in India.” Scindia will travel to Canada on Monday where he will visit the Bombardier and Airbus facilities, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) headquarters as well as the Air India Memorial.