HAL chairman R Madhavan says ‘Rafale political row hasn’t affected our morale’
R Madhavan.
While answering specific questions on Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s quality, the chairman and managing director of the company, R Madhavan, said the political row over the Rafale warplane deal has not brought down the morale or the business of HAL.
Talking to reporters on Thursday, Madhavan said, “Our quality is at a par with anybody else ...There was some bad press after the Mirage(-2000) crash (in Bangalore), but we decided not to say anything until the CoI (court of inquiry) is complete. The Rafale thing has been going on for a while now, and that has not affected our morale.”
“You cannot compare our first aircraft with somebody’s 100th aircraft. There is always a learning curve for the first one. If you look at the Su-30, our man hours is lesser than the original equipment manufacturer. So you must compare our 50th aircraft with their 50th and so on. Also, our manpower cost is very low compared to them, and, moreover labour cost is a very small component of the project,” he added.
Madhavan said that they do feel bad when bad things are said but it hasn’t affected them or their enthusiasm.
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