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As aerospace manufacturing accelerates, India confronts a critical engineering skills gap
As aerospace manufacturing accelerates, India confronts a critical engineering skills gap Premium
The aerospace industry in India represents a huge opportunity for growth and could account for ₹3 lakh billion of defence production in India by 2029. The aerospace market alone is projected to require an estimated 43,000 new aircraft over the next 20 years because of increasing demand coming from the international marketplace.
However, there is a dark side to this potential growth: there is a large skill gap, which could prevent this growth from occurring. Of the 1.5 million engineering graduates that India produces each year, only 71.5% are considered employable, and even fewer of them have the skills necessary to work in aerospace, which requires such precision. There is a skills deficit in this sector, as shown by many reports, including the 2025 India Skills Report. If this skills deficit is not addressed quickly, it may prevent India from achieving its goals in this sector in the near future.
India's aerospace manufacturing sector is entering a decisive phase. With global aircraft makers expanding sourcing from India, new defence platforms under development, and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) hubs emerging across the country, aerospace is fast becoming one of India's most strategic manufacturing frontiers. From civil aviation components to complex defence systems, the scale and sophistication of production are steadily rising.
As production capabilities grow and public remembrance increases, another less visibly relied upon but more fundamentally limiting factor is clearly appearing; a lack of properly trained engineer labour ready to enter the aerospace sector. Without immediate attention to this growing deficit, the ability to become a leader in producing and competing with aerospace goods may ultimately be impeded by the shortage of skilled workers.
Over the past few years, global aerospace OEMs have accelerated engagement with Indian suppliers due to supply chain diversification, geopolitical shifts, and India's cost-capability edge. Aero-structures, aviation engines (propulsions), avionics/electronic systems, and precision components can now be manufactured by Indian companies. There are several advanced MRO facilities being set up in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Nagpur, which are expected to generate hundreds of thousands of new high-paying job opportunities. According to a NITI Aayog report, the MRO service market is projected to grow from US$1.7bn in 2021 to US$4.0bn by 2031, at 8.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
The expansion corresponds well with national goals like Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) and developing its own capability in defence production; additionally, it signifies that the Indian aerospace industry will not only be able to manufacture components through assembly and fabrication but also create new products through designing, certifying, integrating into systems and developing advanced materials, and more. However, manufacturers continue to report that they are facing a major barrier with regards to meeting the requirements of their customer base because there simply isn't enough trained personnel available in the labour force to support such rapid changes and advancement in the engineering field for manufacturing.
India produces nearly 1.5 million engineering graduates annually, yet only a small fraction are employable in aerospace manufacturing without extensive retraining. Few possess critical skills in composites, avionics, advanced machining, robotics, quality systems, certification, and structural analysis; areas rarely covered in conventional programmes. This leads to prolonged hiring, skill mismatches, and a shortage of mid-career talent. Surveys, including the 2016 Skill Gap Analysis for Indian Aerospace, highlight persistent deficits, worsening the projected shortfall of 1.5 lakh skilled workers in defence by 2026.
Employers also highlight persistent gaps in problem-solving ability, hands-on exposure to industrial equipment, and familiarity with industry-standard software and tooling. In a safety-critical sector like aerospace, where precision, compliance, and reliability are non-negotiable, these shortcomings significantly raise onboarding costs and slow project execution.
At the heart of this challenge is a structural disconnect between engineering education and manufacturing realities. The institutions focus mainly on theoretical learning, while providing little to no shop-floor experience, very limited certification training or real-world challenges. This means that employers have to provide additional training for an extended period of time which increases their costs and delays their timelines as we compete with the rest of the world.
Perception poses another barrier to entering in the aerospace industry: the perception that aerospace engineering is not as easily accessible as careers in IT/software and takes longer to scale creates less incentive for qualified students to pursue these types of jobs. This perception has only helped to decrease available talent during a time when the demand for workers in our industry continues to increase steadily; according to current projections by 2031, airlines will need to grow their fleets from 713 aircraft to 1,522 aircraft (doubling fleet size).
If India is to sustain its aerospace manufacturing momentum, workforce development must be treated as strategic infrastructure. Curriculum reform is essential, with engineering programmes co-designed alongside industry to integrate hands-on training, certification awareness, and exposure to live manufacturing environments. Work-integrated learning models, including paid apprenticeships and learn-and-earn pathways, offer a scalable way to bridge the employability gap.
Technician/Vocational training has received renewed focus and is as important as any other thing for the Aerospace sector --- Skilled Technicians are a necessity for Aerospace MRO, Quality Assurance, Tooling and Assembly. The Aerospace industry's pathways that align with this education will help to build the talent pool and provide careers that are easier to access (2). Targeted incentives, scholarships, funded internships, research grants, and centres of excellence, can attract high-quality talent.
India must also strengthen global talent engagement by creating pathways for experienced aerospace professionals from the Indian diaspora to contribute through technology transfer, mentoring, and leadership roles. At the same time, increasing the participation of women in aerospace engineering is critical; not only as a matter of equity but also as a practical response to growing talent shortages.
There is genuine, believable, and strategically-imperative aerospace manufacturing happening in India. This includes opportunities for exports, defence independence, and the creation of high-value jobs. But having enough manufacturing capability will not ensure success. The next step will depend on having enough trained engineers/technicians to meet worldwide requirements for quality, precision, safety, and innovation.
As aerospace manufacturing scales up, India must ensure that its talent ecosystem scales faster. Without this alignment between ambition and capability, the promise of becoming a global aerospace hub risks remaining grounded.
(Prof. Mukti Kanta Mishra, President, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha)
(Sign up for THEdge, The Hindu's weekly education newsletter.)
Published - February 09, 2026 07:46 pm IST
education / aerospace
Source: TheHindu
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