HAL achievements in 2013
Dr RK Tyagi, Chairman HAL has reviewed the achievements of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited during the calendar year ending 31 December 2013.
On 20 December 2013, Defence Minister AK Antony handed over ‘Release to Service Documents’ of the Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) to the then Chief of the Air Staff, at a special function held at HAL, Bangalore. “This event paves way for entry of Tejas into operational service. More than 900 officers from HAL along with IAF personnel, scientists from the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and others have worked together to ensure that this dream for India comes true”. With this, India joins an elite club of very few nations with have this kind of defence capability even as HAL sets into the manufacturing mode for the Tejas.
On 14 December 2013, the Indian Navy handed over a HAL Dhruv advanced light helicopter to the Maldives, prior to which two HAL Dhruvs supported the smooth conduct of elections in Nepal. Earlier, on 8 October, 2013, the HAL Dhruv fleet completed 100,000 flying hours thus achieving another landmark.
On 6 November 2013 the Indian Navy inducted the first three Hawk advanced jet trainers manufactured by HAL at a ceremony at Vizagapatnam.
On 5 November 2013, ISRO launched the Mars Orbiter Satellite and HAL has majorly contributed to this mission as well as to other important missions in manufacturing all the satellite structures launched till date by ISRO.
R&D has remained under focus during the year 2013, with HAL filing 205 patents and establishing Chairs at Indian Institutes of Technology at Kanpur, Roorkee and Chennai. HAL’s 10 R&D Centres were brought under the ambit of Committee of Institutional Network (COIN). HAL Board also decided to create an R&D corpus fund by earmarking 10% of annual profits of the Company for concentrating on advanced & applied research in the aerospace domain.
HAL’s synergy with the Defence Forces, MoD, DRDO and PSUs has continued and effective action plans formulated for the HTT-40 basic training aircraft, the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA), Multirole Transport Aircraft (MTA), Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), UAVs and 25 KN aero-engine, amongst others.
As a diversification strategy, action plans for the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) responsible for developing a new regional transport aircraft, MRO, Airport operations as also for civil helicopters were further developed.
HAL’s focus on Quality, Customer Satisfaction, timely deliveries and indigenisation was further sharpened, the Year 2013-14 specially dedicated for enhanced quality.
Initiatives like Vendor Meetings, MoU with Transparency International, strengthening the supply base, employee survey and competency mapping and sector skill council in aerospace and aviation sector continued. A batch of 285 management trainees joined HAL, and in keeping with the highest standards of speed, transparency and governance, results of the recruitment were declared within 48 hours of personal interview (98,000 plus aspirants took the written test).
The Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) granted ‘Excellent’ rating to HAL for performance during the year 201213. On 12 December, 2013 the Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE) announced SCOPE Award for Excellence and Outstanding contribution to the Public Sector Management - Institutional Category-I for 2011-12 for HAL. On 19 December, 2013 Dainik Bhaskar gave Gold award to HAL in ‘Defence Category’ at Delhi, while on 20 December, 2013 the Institution of Engineers (India) gave the ‘IEI Industry Excellence Award 2013’ to HAL. Defence Minister AK Antony also awarded HAL with the ‘Best Division Award’ for Hyderabad and Individual Award Category for Foundry & Forge Division on 25 November, 2013. Apart from this, HAL also received various other awards for its outstanding performance in various areas.