Aero India-Bengaluru not grounded after all!

BENGALURU/New Delhi: Ending a two-month-long suspense over the venue, triggered by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s ambiguous stand on Aero India 2019 being held in the aerospace hub as planned -- triggered by pressure from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to shift the event to his state -- the Ministry of Defence announced on Saturday that Aero India’s next edition will be held in the city on February 20, 2019, as planned. Waking up to the fact that all other venues raised by the minister, in particular the Bakshi Ka Talab airbase near Lucknow which topped the list of alternative options despite its appalling lack of infrastructure -- it has one hangar -- to host Asia’s largest aerospace show, the MoD said in New Delhi that the five-day show will go ahead as planned in the well connected IT capital. A lone hangar in Bakshi Ka Talab, a care & maintenance unit of the Indian Air Force would be inadequate for an international air show, with little room for expansion of the air base as it was surrounded by paddy fields. At one point, the top brass had asked DRDO to drop the convention of organizing an international conference along with the air show when told that it would be impossible to invite renowned experts to a city not connected by international flights, at short notice.