The search string Indian Civil Aviation in Google yields some of the very dynamic results – typical of most highly sophisticated industrial and commercial sectors in the Indian subcontinent. In an April 2010 post, The India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), listed 454 as the total number of airports and airstrips “in place” in the country, out of which, 16 are designated as international airports. The article goes ahead to quote an Airport Service Quality passenger survey which ranks Hyderabad International Airport, managed by a public-private joint venture, amongst the world’s top five. From this and a few other examples, it is quite clear that the public-private partnership or PPP is a success story.
But this is just one aspect of the growth spree. Amidst the increasing passenger statistics, compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and revenue margins, there is one very vital statistic, which to our surprise, none of the surveys ever talked about - the growing number of young Indians, aircraft maintenance trainees or pilots, between the age of group of 19 – 30, jobless and hopeless. Amidst non-verified reports ranking Indian Civil Aviation amongst the top five markets in five years, it is an irony for the multitudes of these highly skilled citizens who face an uncertain future. There only hope – surveys and reports like these which serves as few more weeks of oxygen necessary to sustain life amidst rising costs of living. The question every one seems to ask or no one would wish to answer is: Is anybody concerned?
The Ministry of Civil Aviation clearly states it “is the nodal Ministry responsible for policy formulation, development and regulation of the Civil Aviation sector in India. “ The statement, on its web site, is complimented by a beaming portrait of the Minister for Civil Aviation, Praful Patel. Whether the ministry is aware or not, from the web site statement, the ministry clearly is responsible due to lapses in policies regulating manpower licensing and certification of training schools. Every year thousands of students, (The exact figure is unknown and uncharted) which some industry insiders put at anywhere from 10,000 - 15,000, add up to the job queue.
The shocker is that for most job hunt sites here, terms like aircraft maintenance engineer or aircraft technicians are terms they have never heard of. An aircraft maintenance engineering student has to settle for other shady alternatives like middlemen or opt for a non-conventional approach. The deeper the insight goes, darker the picture gets. The final blow to the crises is that every large aviation corporation in the country has no defined set of qualifications set as its eligibility criterion when it comes to hiring prospective staff for executive positions in Quality control, maintenance and flight operations. A typical “walk-in”, if at all - for maintenance personnel is attended not only by aircraft maintenance graduates but also by diploma holders in electronics and telecommunications, electrical or mechanical streams plus the regular army of unemployed engineers (B.E.) from premier institutions alike. Rightfully said – Unity in Diversity. This last but not the least piece of information brings into light another culprit, the Ministry of HRD – as they proudly call it on their national web site. Their sub-heading states “Details on national education policies, schemes, scholarships, statistics, and also malpractice alerts.” – copied and pasted here, verbatim, from the search listing in Google.
The Ministry of “HRD” and the Ministry of Civil Aviation, as the two pivotal regulatory authorities, quickly need to assess the damage already done and take precautionary measures. The dynamic times now need dynamic measures and pro-active governance, this is a lesson the Indians need to learn – and they need to learn fast, especially in the light of the fact that change – any change that is too critical, is always deferred to the next five year plan, five years later.
No comments:
Post a Comment