The Hindu Business Line : HAL plans to outsource Rs 500-cr works to SMEs

Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, with its order books overflowing, expects to outsource works up to Rs 400-500 crore to small and medium enterprises during the current fiscal year, according to Mr A.K. Saxena, Managing Director, HAL Bangalore Complex. This would be nearly double last year's job-works worth Rs 285 crore, he said.

The aerospace major is looking at the SMEs for support in its various defence and civil aviation projects. It will be producing the Hawk advanced trainer, the indigenous intermediate trainer that is under development and the advanced light helicopter. These and the earlier Boeing and Airbus orders for aircraft systems would last the next few years, Mr Saxena said at a seminar on opportunities for SMEs on Thursday.

The defence PSU currently outsources up to 12 per cent of its requirement and aims to increase it to 25 per cent. Of 1,300 SMEs tapped from across the country, 610 are from Bangalore and Karnataka. "This is just the tip of the iceberg. HAL requires three times this number for projects of domestic consumption alone," Mr Saxena said, adding the export-generating offsets from the aircraft purchase deals of Air India and Indian would amount to $ 3-billion contracts in the next 5-10 years.

HAL's requirement is in tooling, test equipment and precision engineering to supplement its own capacity and human resources. IT will hand-hold the industries by sending its assembly-line trainers. Despite the huge opportunities, the aerospace industry base has not grown as needed in the globalised era. This sector, too, is plagued by capacity and talent, which is where academia, Government institutions should get involved in manpower training, especially customer care and marketing, Mr Saxena told the seminar organised by the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce & Industry.

`SMEs need to improve'

The FKCCI President, Mr R.C. Purohit, said SMEs lacked databases on technology and market intelligence. They could not provide wage rate and career development opportunities matching larger companies. Technology, e-business, IT absorption and finance were their other constraints. State agencies such as the KIADB and KSIIDC should develop new industrial areas with good approach roads in order to promote SMEs. Mr J.Crasta, the federation's SME Committee Chief, called for a winning model to support the small units.

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