Over 300 senior executives from the aerospace and aviation sector participated in the 2024 edition of the International Conference on the Future of Aviation and Aerospace, hosted by IIM Bangalore and Toulouse Business School France, recently. The conference had keynote addresses and six expert panels on subjects, ranging from MROs to drones to talent management in the aviation sector.
The first panel on ‘The Impact of Macroeconomic Environment on Aviation and Aerospace’ featured Prof. Chetan Subramanian, RBI Chair Professor of Economics at IIMB, Dr. Srinivasan Dwarakanath, Former CEO & MD, Airbus India Operations, and Kallappa Pattada, Executive Director, Boeing India Engineering. In his presentation on the macroeconomic view, Prof. Subramanian highlighted some of the headwinds like COVID, inflation caused by shortage of supply, wars and elections, and their connection with the aviation sector. Dr. Dwarkanath discussed the impact of black swan events like COVID, geopolitical challenges, currency rate, and regulatory environment on growth in the aerospace and aviation sector, said a release.
The panel on the ‘Future of Global and Local Aviation Market’ featured Dr. Srinivasan Dwarkanath, Former CEO & MD, Airbus India Operations, and Sunil Bhaskaran, Director, Air India Aviation Academy, and was moderated by Prof. S. Raghunath. Sunil Bhaskaran, who spoke of the trends that will define the shape of the airline industry in the years to come, listed customer-centricity, data and analytics, sustainability, distribution capability, fleet and network, alliances and partnerships, and talent.
Amber Dubey, Senior Advisor, McKinsey & Company, and the man who piloted the drone policy for India as Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Govt of India, commented, “The drone sector has grown exponentially, especially for use in agriculture. We were aiming at ‘ har haath mein phone; har khet mein drone ’. Women practising agriculture in villages are given training free of cost and incentivized to use this technology. The biggest benefit of drones is the ability to supply medicines in remote areas. But the biggest issue continues to be with security and tracking.”
The panel on ‘Fly Net Zero by 2050’ featured Chris Krishnaswamy, Systems Engineering Principal (Digital 145), Sasikumar Muthusamy, Senior Director, Global Engineering at Collins Aerospace, and Uma Maheshwar, Chief Consulting Engineer, GE Aerospace Engineering India, who discussed the challenges that disruptive technologies must overcome to reach net zero goals.
The other two panel discussions included, ‘High Stakes in the Sky’ and ‘The Era of the Evolved Employee.’ Among the dignitaries were the Consul General of France Thierry Berthelot, Prof. Christopher Benaroya, from Toulouse Business School France, and the top leadership of IIMB.
