Atmanirbhar Bharat vs an International Tender: Questions Surrounding the Biju Patnaik Aviation Centre
India is currently facing an unprecedented shortage of trained pilots.Official data from the Ministry of Civil Aviation itself acknowledges that the country will require thousands of additional pilots in the coming years. At such a critical juncture, the Odisha government’s decision to issue an international tender for appointing a Flight Training Organization (FTO) to operate the Biju Patnaik Aviation Centre (BPAC) at Dhenkanal has raised serious concerns within India’s civil aviation training ecosystem.The global Request for Proposals (RFP) issued by the State Transport and Commercial Department is formally structured as an International Competitive Bidding process and adopts a Quality-and- Cost-Based Selection (QCBS) methodology. However, a closer examination of its eligibility criteria and evaluation framework reveals a troubling disconnect from national priorities. Far from strengthening domestic capacity,the tender appears to be misaligned with the core objectives of Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make-in-India.Industry stakeholders argue that while the tender is international in name, its spirit is clearly calibrated to favour large multinational flight-training conglomerates—entities with deep financial reserves, multi-country operations, airline-backed cadet pipelines, and institutional buffers against global disruptions. Such characteristics are rarely found among India’s domestic flight-training providers.
India’s FTO ecosystem largely consists of DGCA-approved, single- or dual-base operators that have been training pilots within the Indian regulatory framework for decades.
The most serious flaw in the tender design lies in its complete disregard for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the core eligibility requirements mandates five consecutive years of continuous civil aviation training activity in the immediately preceding five financial years. While seemingly neutral on paper, this condition effectively penalises Indian FTOs for circumstances entirely beyond their control.
Between 2020 and 2022, flight training operations in India were virtually paralysed. Aircraft remained grounded for months, instructors were idle, and revenues collapsed, while fixed costs such as aircraft leases, hangar rentals, and staff salaries continued unabated. Many Indian FTOs survived only through promoter funding, debt restructuring, or scaled-down operations. In contrast, global FTOs were relatively insulated, benefiting from simulator-based training in other jurisdictions, airline-linked cadet programs, diversified international operations, and, in some cases, government support mechanisms.
Equally problematic is the requirement that bidders demonstrate positive net worth in each of the last three financial years. In a post-pandemic aviation environment, this condition is both unrealistic and structurally exclusionary for Indian training institutions. Net-worth erosion during a systemic global crisis does not indicate poor governance or weak operational capability; it merely reflects the extraordinary financial shock imposed on the sector. Yet, this clause automatically disqualifies many competent, safety-compliant, and experienced Indian FTOs from participation.
This situation raises a fundamental policy question: should public procurement processes be treated as purely technical exercises, or must they also serve as instruments of national strategy? When the Union government is actively promoting domestic aviation training capacity and positioning India as a global aviation hub, state-level tenders that inadvertently sideline Indian institutions risk undermining that very objective.
Public aviation infrastructure such as the Biju Patnaik Aviation Centre should not be viewed merely as an operational asset, but as a strategic platform for national human-resource development. If eligibility and evaluation criteria are designed in a manner that systematically excludes domestic players, the principle of self-reliance is reduced to rhetoric.
What is needed is a procurement framework that reflects Indian realities—one that accounts for the pandemic’s impact, recognises domestic operational expertise, and balances financial prudence with policy intent. Without such course correction, Atmanirbhar Bharat risks remaining a slogan, while strategic opportunities continue to pass into foreign hands.
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