India’s investment in innovation low, we need to develop our own engine for combat aircraft: Ex-DRDO head Saraswat | India News
NEW DELHI: Former DRDO head and NITI Aayog member Vijay Kumar Saraswat said on Thursday that India’s investment in innovation and research is very low as compared to developed countries and the govt needed to invest more on that front.Speaking at AEDEX + AIRPORT Expo 2026 in Delhi, Saraswat, “We need to invest more in innovation and research, allow more transfer of technologies from DRDO to the Indian private sector for bulk production of critical weapons, key govt organisations should do hand-holding of the private sector, and govt defence organisations should open their facilities to private sector for testing their weapons for accelerating the production of critical systems and subsystems needed for developing combat aircraft like AMCA.”India spends roughly 0.8% of its GDP on research and development, which falls short compared to major economies. Developed nations like the US, South Korea, and Israel allocate between 2.7% and 5% of their GDP toward R&D.Talking about the delay in delivery of Tejas Mk1A aircraft due to late supply of GE F404-IN20 engines from the American company GE, Saraswat said, “We should learn from GE F404 and make our own engine.”
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Amitabh Saraf, programme director (combat aircraft) and director of Aeronautical Development Agency, said, “ADA has developed a lot of indigenous systems. But developing a combat aircraft is a very complicated exercise. We still need a lot of indigenous systems and subsystems for the fighter project. We still need to import flight control, AC generators, hydraulic and fuel pumps, and carbon fibre.”
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