Devathathan Mookahia, Director, Poeir Jets Pvt Ltd speaks about the company’s new offerings, and the inherent strengths of India’s aerospace industry
Bengaluru-based Poeir Jets, the company that aims to establish itself as an industry leader in providing propulsion solutions to UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems), launched two Hybrid drones and a Turbo Shaft Jet Engine at Aero India 2019. DMI’s Sr VP Strategy Dinesh Mishra caught up with Devathathan Mookahia, Director, Poeir Jets Pvt Ltd at Aero India 2019, and sought his views on the status of India’s aerospace industry and related subjects. Edited excerpts.
India’s still-evolving aerospace industry: Challenge or opportunity
It’s a challenge. To make an opportunity out of it, we have to go a long way. The aerospace transport-and-passenger segment is extremely capital intensive and is concentrated in a few countries. We, as a country haven’t reached that maturity level yet, and we need to start to work towards that goal.
There are two things that can be done at this situation – first, we [the Indian industry] establish ourselves as a manufacturing hub for industries up the stream – aircraft OEMs for example. Second, the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) segment is where the future is, however it is still emerging and largely unknown in India, because of which regulations are not in place. However, in terms of talent and technology, we are at par with the US-Europe countries in this segment, so we don’t have put the initial struggle. India is at a good place to capture the market of the UAS segment. China is doing it extensively and at a fast clip.
Once the regulations are in place, we should start importing from China and the USA. Our main objective at this point is that the machines should be made available in India after the regulations are in place. We started with the engine [India’s first indigenously developed Micro Jet Engine] in 2016 and successfully tested the engine for three years. Leveraging the technology of propulsion system, we
have developed three drones. The market is huge and thanks to the fast development of technologies like artificial intelligence, 3D printing and others, our initiatives are leading to distributor development around the world. Our aim is to place India on the global map of
this segment.
Leveraging strengths to accelerate growth
India is a big consumer, therefore sector-wise wherever we can start indigenising products or components that we are importing. Our strengths are our people, the software industry and the large pool of engineering talent available in the country that we can harness to build innovative products. We need to have more start-ups and SMEs who use their talent and ideas to come out with the products that are applicable and useful to the local market. Then for its value arbitration we can also export it to other countries. That’s exactly what our company is doing. We are exploring not just India but the global market as well.
A few weeks ago, Safran announced the setting up of a 290-cr plant in Hyderabad. How do you view this development? what would be its positive implications?
The development will offer a huge advantage in terms of the investments that will come in, and the fact that it will require the Tier-1, Tier-2 and others vendor to start supplying to their quality standards, in turn developing the required skills and facilities for the purpose. It’s a win-win proposition. Of course, a hundred percent utility [of the output] is not possible, they will have some spare capacity which they would want to use for [services and products] for Indian companies like the Tatas and the Mahindras as well. It’s certainly a very positive development.
Positive developments in India’s Aerospace Industry
Past four years have been good for the Indian aerospace industry particularly in terms of investments and government policy support. Earlier it was Bangalore that was an aerospace hub, now we have newer hubs emerging in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and other states. I am excited to see the healthy competition between states that help the industry as well as the manufacturers.
About Poeir Jet’s engines and other offerings
We are mainly exhibiting [at Aero India] the smart jet engines, the unmanned aerial vehicles that have applications in logistics and forestry, defence and other such sectors. We are also developing our own power plant. We are ready to supply our propulsion solutions to other drone developers in India and worldwide. That way we can collaborate and quickly take the advantage of the emerging opportunities.
Advantage Make In India
The Government has really opened all the channels of communication between the developers and the consumers especially in the defence and other sectors. We have received government funding for fire-fighting drones. I think that signals a big change – people can take risks, develop the product and expect to receive support from the government.
Devathathan Mookahia, Director, Poeir Jets Pvt Ltd
www.poeirjets.com
