The leaders of India and Spain launch India’s first private military aircraft plant

Associated Press

VADODARA, India (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez have inaugurated India’s first private military aircraft plant. It’s a boost to New Delhi’s ambitions of growing local manufacturing in its defense and aerospace industries. Sanchez was welcomed to India on Monday with a roadshow in Gujarat state’s Vadodara city where hundreds cheered and waved banners. The two leaders then launched the Tata Aircraft Complex, the manufacturing hub which will produce the Airbus C-295 transport military aircraft in collaboration with Airbus Spain and to be deployed by the Indian air force. Sanchez said the project was a triumph of Modi’s vision “to turn India into an industrial powerhouse.”