- PM Modi inaugurates Safran’s Aircraft Engine Services India facility via videoconferencing.
- Says new centre will help India emerge as a global MRO hub and boost youth employment.
- India now among world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, with airlines ordering 1,500+ aircraft.
- PM highlights major reforms, ease of doing business, and India’s push for “Design in India”.
GG News Bureau
Hyderabad, 26th Nov: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugurated the Safran Aircraft Engine Services India (SAESI) facility at Hyderabad’s GMR Aerospace and Industrial Park via videoconferencing. Calling it a new milestone for India’s aviation industry, the Prime Minister said the state-of-the-art centre would play a defining role in establishing India as a global Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) hub.
“From today, India’s aviation sector is taking a new flight,” he said, adding that Safran’s investment would generate new opportunities for youth in high-tech aerospace.
The Prime Minister recalled his meeting with the Safran Board and Management on November 24 and said the company’s confidence in India has remained strong over the years. He congratulated Safran for setting up deep-level servicing capabilities in the country for the first time.
Modi noted that India’s aviation sector has grown at an unprecedented pace, emerging among the fastest-expanding domestic aviation markets globally. He pointed out that India now ranks as the world’s third-largest domestic aviation market, with passenger demand rising sharply. To meet this surge, Indian carriers have placed orders for more than 1,500 aircraft.
With the rapid expansion of the aviation ecosystem, the Prime Minister underscored the urgent need for domestic MRO capacity. Nearly 85 percent of India’s MRO work has been happening abroad, leading to higher costs and longer downtime. The government, he said, is now focused on developing India as one of the world’s major MRO hubs.
Modi highlighted that Safran’s training initiatives and knowledge-transfer programmes would help create a skilled workforce, accelerating the growth of India’s MRO ecosystem. He added that India is simultaneously working to expand MRO capabilities in the shipping sector as well.
The Prime Minister emphasised India’s growing push for “Design in India” and urged Safran to explore opportunities for engine and component design work in the country, supported by India’s vast MSME network and young talent pool.
“Today’s India is not only dreaming big but taking bold decisions and achieving bigger outcomes,” he said, reiterating: “We are dreaming big, doing bigger and delivering best.”
Modi also highlighted structural reforms undertaken to attract global industries. He said India has strengthened its economic fundamentals, liberalised FDI norms—allowing 100 percent FDI through automatic routes in most sectors—and opened 74 percent FDI in defence manufacturing. The space sector, too, he noted, has undergone transformative policy changes.
The Prime Minister said India has reduced over 40,000 company compliances, decriminalised hundreds of business-related provisions, and simplified clearances through the National Single Window System. GST reforms, faceless tax assessments, new labour codes, and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code have further improved transparency.
Modi said these steps have positioned India as a trusted partner and rising manufacturing hub with rapid growth, political stability, a large domestic market, and a vast pool of young professionals. “In India, we regard those who invest not merely as investors, but as co-creators—stakeholders in our journey towards a developed nation,” he said.
Calling India the “smartest business bet of this decade,” the Prime Minister congratulated all stakeholders on the launch of the modern MRO facility.
Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and Union Minister K. Ram Mohan Naidu were among the dignitaries present at the event.
