Damning HAL will get us nowhere

Wisdom lies in giving Hindustan Aeronautics every encouragement. The Air Force should work closely with it, just as the Navy does with public sector ship-building enterprises

In the context of the Rafale purchase, a collateral victim has been our largest defence public sector undertaking (PSU), Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The ministry of defence has little difficulty in paying foreign manufacturers on dates specified in contracts even for equipment yet to be supplied, but has no issue in delaying similar payments for supplies already made by their own PSU.  

HAL is possibly one of our earliest PSUs, leaving aside the Ordnance factories. From producing the little Gnat in the 1960s to the Sukhois fifty years later has been no mean achievement. It has the distinction of designing and