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In short,If we don't yet know what's routine and what's unusual about human COVID-19, how could a rhesus macaque model claim to recapitulate human disease? Which aspect? The mild/moderate one or the severe/critical one?Properly situating the rhesus macaque model of COVID-19 requires acknowledging the problematic nature of its existence at this point in time.Brief discussion of rhesus macaque COVID-19 models as they presently exist.If we don't yet know what's routine and what's unusual about human COVID-19, how could a rhesus macaque model faithfully recapitulate human disease?Another day in the age of COVID-19, another headline about another medical mystery.According to several front-line doctors, COVID-19 respiratory distress differs greatly from classic Acute respiratory distress syndrome - Wikipedia (ARDS) so much so the exact nature of COVID-19 ARDS and how best to treat it remains unsettled.Even with no definite answer yet to such a fundamental issue of pathophysiology, several other medical mysteries have come rushing out into the public domain at a fast clip.Reports of myocardial and kidney injury in some, of mysterious blood clots in others.Reports of even young and middle-aged who seem barely ill suddenly getting and even dying from strokes.Reports that several patients present with GI tract and not respiratory symptoms. Further, no definitive evidence yet to either support or disprove fecal-oral transmission of SARS-CoV-2.Given SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to use the ACE-2 receptor to enter host cells, heart specialists are now engaged in a lively debate about whether widely prescribed blood pressure medications such as ACE inhibitor - Wikipedia and Angiotensin II receptor blocker - Wikipedia (ARBs) help the virus gain entry or protect against it.Reports that many mild/moderate cases present with abrupt and profound loss of smell and taste.Reports that some mild/moderate cases can present with mysterious skin rashes and lesions, e.g., 'COVID toes'.Even though children appeared to be largely unaffected by COVID-19, new reports now suggest rare cases can present with intense and dangerous inflammation that closely resembles Kawasaki disease.Even so, the panoply of COVID-19 disease symptoms may or may not be that different from other medically relevant viruses. We have no way of knowing one way or another just as yet. At least two intermingled processes at play explain the current state of disorientation.The remarkable speed with which SARS-COV-2 has spread across the global human population has stymied the age-old medical information processing system that's used to working at a more sedate pace.A novel, highly contagious virus is making its way at lightning speed across an extremely diverse global human population that harbors all manner of genetic polymorphisms, epigenetic changes, microbiota differences, nutrition status differences and preexisting health conditions, to name a few of the most relevant ones. Some of these differences could have a crucial role in resistance to SARS-CoV-2, others in susceptibility to it. The complicated role of all this complexity in disease manifestation is playing out in real time in a compressed manner that's unprecedented.This has happened long before scientists had a handle on even the bare basics. On the other hand, other endemic, potentially deadly and acute viruses such as flu and measles have circulated among humans for thousands of years at a minimum, since long before modern medicine even took shape. Both the medical profession as well as the lay population have had multiple lifetimes to get used to these older viruses and the havoc they can wreak.Where unusual pathophysiology and medical and scientific knowledge associated with a particular virus accumulated at a more easily digestible pace in the past, both the routine and unusual features of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease are currently emerging into the public domain all at once hopelessly intermingled and at warp speed within a ferocious fire-hose of information that shows no signs of abating. Such unnatural compression of extremely complex biomedical information overwhelms normal cognitive capacity to digest and understand, especially so among exhausted front-line staff in hospitals overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.Properly situating the rhesus macaque model of COVID-19 requires acknowledging the problematic nature of its existence at this point in time.Even as what's routine and what's unusual about human COVID-19 pathophysiology remains unresolved even within the realm of subject matter experts, the rhesus macaque model of SARS-CoV-2 infection has emerged to plonk itself in the midst of all this confusion and that opens up some uncomfortable questions.What exactly does the rhesus macaque model purport to simulate about human COVID-19? Its atypical ARDS? Its atypical pneumonia? Its most common clinical symptoms? Its immune responses? Its potentially deadly Cytokine release syndrome - Wikipedia (CRS)?How could it do so when there's no consensus yet about what's routine versus what's unusual about any of these aspects of human COVID-19? Unfortunately, this reality suggests a stench of opportunism about some of these rhesus macaque studies.Brief discussion of rhesus macaque COVID-19 models as they presently existAt least 3 different research teams, two from China and one from the US have posted rhesus macaque COVID-19 data on preprint servers while another team from China has already published a paper in a peer-reviewed journal.The peer-reviewed paper studied the course of COVID-19 infection in 3 to 5 year old (n=3) versus 15 year olds (n=2) (below from 1).“inoculated with SARS-CoV-2 by intratracheal routes containing 106 TCID50/mL”They highlight that older rhesus macaques harbored higher virus titers in nasopharyngeal swabs as well as lung tissues for a bit longer compared to the younger ones (below from 1).However, the data in this study has several serious problems (below from 1),For one, both groups clear virus by 14 days. Even if older rhesus macaques maintain slightly higher virus titers for a few days compared to the younger ones, this doesn't seem to impair their ability to completely eliminate the virus by 14 days.For another, there isn't evidence of substantial virus replication in nasal/throat/anal swabs nor in lung tissue lobes. The titers tend to hover at ~10^6 over time, which is the infection dose the authors used.The authors also misuse statistics to artificially minimize within-group variations in order to artificially accentuate between-group differences.Finally, an important observation that will echo through the other studies as well (below from 1)“without significant change of body temperature during the entire observation”That is, these infected rhesus macaques did not develop fever, which is now recognized as one of the cardinal symptoms of human SARS-CoV-2 infection in many if not most patients.The second Chinese study is still a preprint (below from 2),“Six RM (1–6) between the ages of 6 and 12 years, three males and 3 females, were inoculated with 7×106 50% tissue-culture infectious doses (TCID50) of SARS-CoV–2 􀀀VCAS 6.7512􀀀hrough intratracheal route.”It reported (below from 2)“No obvious clinical signs were observed during the study course except one animal showed reduced appetite. The body weight (Fig. 1b) did not show any change from 1 to 6 day post infection (d.p.i.) for all animals investigated while 7% and 8% weight loss was noticed on 14 d.p.i. In RM1 and RM4, respectively. The body temperature (Fig. 1c) was monitored from day 1 to day 14 and no obvious changes were found.”However, both studies report pneumonia including ground-glass opacities in lungs so there's that at least though even that becomes a distinction without a difference as we'll see in the next section.The US team based at Rocky Mountain labs has posted two preprints on its COVID-19 rhesus macaque model, one that established it (3) and the other (4) that claims remdesivir clinically benefits infected macaques.These studies too present serious problems.For one, the authors used the same dose in both studies. This discredits their claim of remdesivir clinical benefit because their first study showed the infected macaques could clinically recover from infection by themselves by day 17 post-infection (below from 3)“Eight adult rhesus macaques were inoculated with a total dose of 2.6x106 TCID50 of SARS-CoV-2 isolate nCoV-WA1-202018 via a combination of intratracheal, intranasal, ocular and oral routes. On day 1 post inoculation (dpi), all animals showed changes in respiratory pattern and piloerection, as reflected in their clinical scores (Fig. 1a). Other observed signs of disease included reduced appetite, hunched posture, pale appearance and dehydration (Table S1). Disease signs persisted for more than a week, with all animals completely recovered between 9 and 17 dpi (Fig. 1a and Table S1).”Infected macaques also cleared viral loads by themselves by 17 to 21 days (below from 3)How then could the authors claim to show a clinical benefit of remdesivir in their 2nd preprint? Simple. They just had to contort themselves like circus acrobats in order to justify why they started treating the macaques 12 hours after injecting them with SARS-CoV-2 (below from 4, emphasis mine),“Due to the acute nature of the SARS-CoV-2 model in rhesus macaques, therapeutic treatment was initiated at 12 hours after inoculation with SARS-CoV-2 and continued once daily through 6 days post inoculation (dpi).”Note that these 2 studies used a dose of 2.6X10^6 while the Chinese preprint used a 2.7X higher dose of 7X10^6.Even so, neither dose induced serious clinical symptoms such as sustained high fever, substantial weight loss nor the all-important ARDS.Even more important, the US study noted that pulmonary infiltrates began to resolve by themselves by day 14 post-infection (Below from 4).Final nail in the coffin is that the 1st US study examined serum cytokine levels only to report no CRS (below from 3),“Serum was analyzed for changes in cytokine and chemokine levels at different time points after inoculation. Statistically significant changes were only observed on 1 dpi, with increases in IL1ra, IL6, IL10, IL15, MCP-1, MIP-1b, and on 3 dpi a small but statistically significant decrease in TGFα was observed (Fig. S2). Although changes occurred in the levels of some of these cytokines later after inoculation, these mostly occurred in single animals and were thus not statistically significant (Fig. S2).”If these rhesus macaque COVID-19 models simulate anything at all at present, it is mild COVID-19 cases in humans. Since such cases resolve by themselves without needing pharmaceutical or even non-pharmaceutical interventions, it begs the question as to what value these models currently have in biomedical research on COVID-19.Clearly, such models do not recapitulate any unmet critical biomedical need and have no immediate translatable value. After all how likely is it that any human with COVID-19 would get treated with remdesivir within 12 hours of SARS-CoV-2 infection?Such rhesus macaque models are a sign of supine, rubber-stamping Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee - Wikipedia (ACUC) and little else.One rhesus macaque vaccine model developed by China's Sinovac has however shown potential value.PiCoVacc is an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate. Authors vaccinated rhesus macaques with either 3 or 6𝝁g/ml 3X intramuscularly one week apart. At day 22, all macaques, which included control and sham-vaccinated ones, were challenged with 10^6 TCID50 of SARS-CoV-2 CN1 inoculated intratracheally into the lung (below from 5).Viral loads were and stayed substantially lower in throat and anal swabs of vaccinated macaques over the 7 days of observation.Histopathological changes in lung also remained minimal in vaccinated macaques compared to control and sham-vaccinated macaques that developed severe interstitial pneumonia.Note that this study too misuses statistics. Further, similar to other rhesus macaque models, it too shows mild course of infection with no weight loss nor appreciable fever in the control or sham-vaccinated macaques (that’s shown in supplementary figure S3).Like so much else about animal models of human disease, the rhesus macaque model of human COVID-19 is akin to a curate’s egg, much that’s bad and a little that’s potentially beneficial to humans.Bibliography1. Yu, Pin, et al. "Age‐related rhesus macaque models of COVID‐19." Animal Models and Experimental Medicine (2020). Age‐related rhesus macaque models of COVID‐192. Shan, C., et al. "Infection with novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) causes pneumonia in the rhesus macaques." (2020). Infection with Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) Causes Pneumonia in the Rhesus Macaques3. Munster, Vincent, et al. "Respiratory disease and virus shedding in rhesus macaques inoculated with SARS-CoV-2." BioRxiv (2020). https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.21.001628v1.abstract4. Williamson, Brandi, et al. "Clinical benefit of remdesivir in rhesus macaques infected with SARS-CoV-2." BioRxiv (2020). https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.15.043166v1.abstract5. Gao, Qiang, et al. "Rapid development of an inactivated vaccine for SARS-CoV-2." bioRxiv (2020). https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.17.046375v1Thanks for the R2A, Shashank Kumar and Jeffrey Brender.

Auto Upgradation-------------------------Scheme:1. Is exercised for those passengers only who have opted for upgradation while booking (complaints are there that it was done without exercising (226509) but it sure that the System had already fed into information of this option having been opted for) .2. Is applicable to all the issuing gateways - Counter, E(e-ticket) or I(I-ticket).3. Is applicable to all the status whether CNF, RAC or W/Listed before chart preparation (or at the time of issuance of original booking) and whether Tatkal or General.4. A complete PNR is upgraded and not less than all passengers out of a PNR.5. Next higher class is only to which GENERALLY upgraded (exceptions are there which have previosuly been reported to us where next to next higher class was allotted). One can refer to the upgradation list of Yesvantpur-Howrah Duronto Express/12246 of 25.08.2011 where 41 passengers are upgraded. At Sr. No. 11, one can find that a passenger of 3AC has been upgraded to 1A (Blog Entry No. 226690).6. Is automated on random logic & hence no preference can be set (earlier booked, Tatkal booked, initially confirmed or so).7. There is no compulsion that Upgradation will be applied by IR for any train irrespective of some berths being carried vacant in a class.8. There is no charge for Auto-upgradation and the passengers enjoy the upper class journey just free of cost though in upper class, there may be an additional costing in addition to empty haulage like bed rolls (when upgraded from SL to 3AC or so) and Pantry costing (like 2AC to 1AC in Rajdhani / Duronto or ACCH to ExCH in Shatabdi trains.Precautions:1. Sr.Citizens, Ladies who are prefering Lower Berths and are expecting (or know) that they are likely to get LBs, should not allow upgradation if they need LBs only.2. Sleeper class passengers who do no like Air Conditioning, should not allow upgradation.3. Beware that good allocation in the original class may become bad in the higher class (a reverse is also possible).

When I lived in Bangalore, I frequently saw commercial planes landing at old airport near Marathalli. Now that airport area is exclusively used by HAL to manufacture jet planes like Tejas and its testing. I also saw many HAL buses plying on the roads carrying PSU employees and also empty HAL buses stopping near bust stands and picking up commuters for a fee. Many times I travelled on empty HAL buses from office to home paying nominal bus fare. So, for me, HAL is more of a bus service in Bangalore than Aeronautics manufacturing PSU! Meanwhile Bangalore has been renamed as Bangaluru. Does this improves HAL’s performance? Since year 2008, old HAL airport is closed for civil flights as civil flights shifted to bigger and better Kempegowda International Airport north of the city. This is revenue loss to HAL and its employees are agitating to revive civil flights to earn revenue. HAL approached NDA II defence minister Manohar Parikar for bailout and he asked commercial airliners to use Bangaluru HAL airport partly for some revenue generation for HAL. HAL should realize that civil flight operation management is under jurisdiction of AAI (Airport Authority of India) and HAL should focus on its core competency of manufacturing defence jets and helicopters.HAL however has few success stories also. In a short span of nearly 15 years, HAL has developed attack helicopter call LCH (Light Combat Helicopter). It is one of the best in it’s class compares well with USA Russian European or Chinese attach helicopters. Japan is keen to buy LCH. LCH need was felt in 1999 Kargil war where bulky Russian utility helicopters were shot down and failed to deliver punch at high altitude to holed up Pakistani soldiers. LCH got initial operational clearance in 2015 & demonstrated bomb dropping and other missile firing at Iron Fist IAF exercise at Pokharan in 2015. Final operational clearance is expected by 2017 followed by serial production. LCH production is expected to start from 2018 but how many LCH per year can be expected from this plant each year. China has production base of its attack helicopter ZH-10. And recent news published by Chinese media that all Army divisions Corp has been provided with a regiment of ZH-10 chopper. To counter this threat, India must produce huge volume of LCH per year and not merely 2-3 choppers per year. IAF has given 64 LCH order to HAL and if past performance is any indication, HAL will take 40-45 years to make these 64 LCH! A recent good news is HAL wants to give technology to an Indian company who can make large numbers of ALH Dhruv choppers.HAL LUH takes first flight in 2016. HAL LCH is a great helicopter that needs bulk production on priorityAnother success story of HAL is development of LUH (Light Utility Helicopter) derived from previously developed Advance Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv . Dhruv is first indigenously developed chopper by HAL and relatively successful. More than 200 Dhruv was made by 2013 but it cannot be called a complete success as there few are crashes in IAF and in Equador, which is the only country outside India who ordered Dhruv. Few Dhruv chopper in Equador crashed and they cancelled entire export order of 6 choppers. Hope new HAL LUH will be a better chopper and gets off the block soon and sufficient quantity serial production starts as early as possible. IAF needs 400 LUH type planes and already India and Russian signed a contract to manufacture 140 out of 200 Russian Kamov 226 model chopper in India. Can HAL handle all these load? HAL is making (or just assembling) Sukhoi 30 MKI under licence and its maintenance, Tejas fighter jet, British jet trainer Hawk under license and chopper LCH. Manufacturing speed, however, is extremely slow 2-5 planes per year. HAL is made 4 Tejas jet in year 2016 and 3 Tejas made flypast during Republic Day parade 2017. HAL plans to ramp-up production to 8 by year 2017-18 and 16 by 2018-19 and 24 by 2020. A second HAL factory is up at Tumkuru near Bangaluru for helicopters and a third factory for Tejas (second Tejas factory produced its first plane SP5 in January 2017) is considered by government and HAL started outsourcing critical components from private sectors to speedup assembly. If the current slow speed continues, India’s immediate requirement of small single engine planes and choppers will be available in 50 years! China producing 200 jet planes per year and its Aeronautics industry is 7 times bigger than India. Then what is the solution? In the original Raphel MMRCA proposal, 18 planes were to be manufactured in France and 108 in India in collaboration with the HAL. It was later discovered that the cost of 108 fighters would go up by about Rs 150 crore per plane since the labour man hours in India (read HAL inefficiency) were 2.7 times higher than in France, raising questions about the French firm being the lowest bidder. On December 2016, Admiral Sunil Lanba, India’s chief of naval staff (CNS), caused a minor flutter in the media by suggesting that the Navy was doing a rethink on the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) project, India’s premier light fighter jet program. In an article in July 2016, Admiral Arun Prakash (retd.), a former chief of naval staff, outlined three reasons why the military leadership was apprehensive about the project. Firstly, Prakash pointed out that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the huge public sector firm manufacturing the LCA, is a monolithic, indolent giant with a work ethos that struck dread in the hearts of air-warriors. The company’s unionized employees were a cause for low productivity and poor production engineering standards that created many maintenance and inter-changeability problems on aircraft. Secondly, there was a high failure rate of HAL manufactured components and systems that didn’t inspire confidence among military aviation managers. And lastly, Prakash pointed to the suboptimal production support, which often left HAL customers high and dry.HAL’s unionised employees stand behind trophies for Lalbagh Garden (Bangaluru) flower show. Is HAL is supposed to be doing this? (photo from HAL website). HAL’s first jet Marut was born obsolete. It was used only for colourful flypast and gallery shows.Maruti Automobile may know nothing about Aeronautical engineering but they are good at just-in-time Automobile production. Maruti has developed large ancillary industry in Gurugram and Manesar belt near Delhi which help them produce more than 14 lakhs (2016) cars per annum. HAL must adopt this type of production model instead of do-everything-yourself which produces few jets, few helicopters per annum.HAL has huge history of failure. Marut, the first indigenous jet plane before Tejas was made by HAL in collaboration with German company. Marut project disappeared without a trace. German designed Marut was supposed to fly with maximum speed of Mach 2 but its maximum speed was barely Mach 1. Soviet Union provided a blueprint for its popular jet Mig-27 when it was state-of-the art jet for serial production in India. HAL failed to raise to the occation to copy Mig-27 when it has all the blueprints and knowhow. Tejas jet took 35 years to clear initial operational clearance which was developed by DRDO & HAL. Government given go ahead to Tejas mark 1 for 20 jets and 80 Tejas mark 1A to make HAL production up and running despite auditor CAG listed 52 deficiency in Tejas mark 1 before it can be engaged in a hostile dogfight. HAL promised they will resolve most of these deficiencies in Tejas mark 1A which is expected to be operational by 2019. Question remains by when IAF will get its due 80 Tejas mark 1A jets? And will they be obsolete once all 80 planes are operational in year say, 2027? Every taxpayer Indian has right to know what is being manufactured at HAL’s 19 manufacturing plants and at what speed. China, on the other hand, producing defence jets and helicopters at volume which is 20 times bigger than India, thus creating a huge technology gulf between two countries. If Tejas jet fails, it can still be used as advance jet trainer but that 40-45 year money and time waste experience of slow learning of every Aeronautical engineering from scratch will be eye opener for Indian politicians and burrocrats. These decision makers should learn from Indian Metro Rail projects. First Metro project was done at Calcutta (now Kolkata) with Indian engineers with the objective of do it yourself mode in order to learn new technology. That project of 16 KM metro rail was completed in 32 years. Second metro rail project was Delhi Metro which was started with speed of execution in mind and in initial phase, all works were executed by foreign consultants but Indians learned technology vary fast. After a decade, Delhi Metro third phase was mostly done by Indian consultants and even TBM (tunnel boring machine) operators were Indian. So, which process is better? India should follow Delhi metro route for Aeronotical engineering development by allowing Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Sukhoi etc. to deploy production centres with Indian private sector as JV for faster development of this industry. Private sector productivity and efficiency will drive speed and efficiency in Indian Aeronautical industry. We should remember HMT (Hindustan Machine Tools) was big PSU in India in 1980’s with multiple factories and assembly line in Bangalore, buses for employee commute and lost benefits for PSU employees. HMT was called time keepers of the nation as it has near monopoly in wrist watch market segment in 1980s. That changed after Tata group launched Titan wrist watches after economic liberalization in early 1990s. By 21st century HMT became sick PSU due to cost plus manufacturing inefficiency, burro-cracy, lack of marketing & inability to adapt to new technology. By 2016, PSU HMT was dissolved. Hope PSU HAL will not have same fate.IAF inducted two LCA Tejas mark I in 2016 for Flying Daggers squadron before Final Operation Clearance and Tejas made first Republic day parade on 26 January 2017 with three jets. These included two LCA Tejas mark I and a trainer version. On a routine flight from Leh to Bangalore, a Tejas jet landed at Bhopal due to rains (or bad weather). It was reported that water was seeping inside the cockpit. The plane was covered with a tarpaulin sheet to prevent water seepage and photographers were not allowed to take pictures. This proves how poorly designed DRDO / ADA / HAL Tejas jet is. Rain water seepage do not happen even from a Rs 2 lakh rupees Maruti 800 car (it is called Japanese quality). The Tejas has by one account produced One of the single worst fighter projects that has ever been conceived of in the history of aviation. Even as it enters service, the aircraft is already obsolete. However, march past of 3 Tejas for the first time in Republic day parade 2017 gives hope Tejas will survive technological obsolesce. The engine on the Tejas mark I presently is the US-built GE-404, the radar is the Israeli Elta 2032, the ejection seat is British, and the weapons are a mix-and-match from around the world. Many of these imported systems need to eventually be developed in India, but more time will be needed to build up the technology base. The Tejas is never going to re-define the words "state-of-the-art." At the same time, the development of the Tejas is a fairly positive indicator of where India stands in its ability to manufacture fighter aircraft.According to IAF assessments, the Tejas LCA, when compared to Saab’s JAS-39 Gripen and Lockheed Martin’s F-16, boasts reduced airborne endurance — 59 minutes versus three hours for the Gripen and nearly four hours for the F-16. The Tejas can also only carry a weapons payload of around three tons against nearly six tons by the Gripen and seven tons by the F-16. Maintenance requirements for the Tejas LCA are also higher than with foreign combat aircraft. The Tejas LCA requires 20 hours of serving for every hour of flying against six hours for the Gripen and 3.5 hours for the F-16. In addition, the service life of the Tejas LCA is also half that of the 40 years found in both the Gripen and F-16. But this is not a true picture. Tejas is much smaller than Gripen or F-16. Large number of Tejas can fight and win air battles if they fight like wild dog. Wild dogs are often found in jungles of Peninsular jungles and they hunt in a team. Even a much bigger tiger do not confront a group of wild dogs as tiger knows that tiger may kill few wild dogs but ultimately a group of well co-ordinated wild dog group will easily kill a solitary tiger. This should be the game-plan for Tejas. A large number of smaller Tejas needed to target bigger enemy jets. Tejas due to its small size is stealthy by birth and if more composites are added on its surface it will become more stealthy and a game changer!There could, however, also be surprise entries into the Indian competition from the US, with Raytheon, which manufactures the AESA radar for the F/A 18 Super Hornet and the F 16 also showing interest. While in the past, US firms had limited options to offer to New Delhi, with India now gaining Major Defence Partner status, transfer of sensitive technology and licences have been made easier. The integration of an AESA radar was a key parameter for the Air Force to clear the order for 83 LCA Mk 1A fighters, after years of blocking the indigenous fighter on concerns that it would not be combat worthy.Navy refusing HAL Tejas naval versionAs far back as the early 1990s, the navy had initiated a study for examining the feasibility of adapting the LCA to shipborne use. While confirming feasibility, the study had revealed some major problem areas, which included lack of engine thrust, requirement of an arrester hook and stronger undercarriage, and need for cockpit/fuselage re-design before the LCA could attempt carrier operations. Undaunted, the navy re-affirmed its faith in the programme by contributing over Rs 400 crore as well as engineers and test pilots to the project.The prototype LCA (Navy) had rolled out in July 2010, raising great hopes. However, it is obvious that the DRDO failed to address the problems listed above with any urgency, leading to ultimate rejection of this ambitious project. By its failure to deliver on the LCA (Navy), the DRDO has let down its most steadfast supporter amongst the armed forces, the Indian Navy. A little introspection by those at the helm of this organisation would reveal to them three reasons for its abysmal performance despite a wealth of talent and a network of sophisticated laboratories - an exaggerated opinion of their capabilities; a lack of intellectual honesty in denying obvious failures, lazy speed and an unwillingness to seek external help when required.Exercise Red Flag at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada is considered one of the most realistic and challenging aviation warfare exercises. IAF participated in Exercise Red Flag with its Su 30 MKI in 2016 to take on USAF F-16 jets. This game IAF exposure in handling F-16 which is used by Pakistan Air Force (PAF). Exercise Red Flag from January 23 to February 10, 2017 was pitched between USAF 5th generation stealth jet F-35 and 4th generation F-16 jets. F-35 got Impressive 15:1 kill Ratio at Red Flag War Games over F-16. If this is the state of affair, how will a 4th generation Tejas will handle USAF F-35 or Chinese J-20? It will be a fight between a falcon and a sparrow.Until the Tejas arrived, India had lacked a locally built jet fighter since the 1970s when it had the Marut and Gnat/Ajeet, but were retired quickly because the IAF wanted to only import foreign fighters to bridge the technology gap between Marut and USA supplied Sabrejet of PAF. India thus lost development continuity. This blunder must not be repeated because airpower in the 21st century will reflect India’s manufacturing strength. With warplanes growing in complexity and costs, and hostile stealth aircraft about to debut in India’s neighbourhood, imports are certainly not an option.Indian scientists haven’t gained much hands-on experience in joint development of PAK-FA T-50 with Russian as the project PAK-FA T-50 is a fairly mature aircraft for India to get substantial work share. In fact, HAL – which initially hoped to get some development work from Sukhoi – has surrendered much of its quota of work. When India and Russia inked the FGFA deal in December 2011, HAL had only 15 per cent of the work share but was paying 50 per cent of the development cost. But India’s share in research-and-development was limited by its domestic industrial capabilities. The country had no expertise in stealth, which has taxed the world’s leading armament companies.After Modi government in place, there seems to be some positive movement to speed up production rate. Modi lay foundation for a new helicopter factory at Tumkuru near Bangaluru in January 2016 to make LUH, LCH and ALH Dhruva. During Aero India 2017, defence minister Manohar Parrikar declared that a new plant will be up and running in next 18-24 months and will have the capacity to manufacture 8 LCA-Tejas aircraft per year. HAL chief T Suvarna Raju said in March 2017 that HAL will deliver 8 LCA jets in year 2017 and start an annual delivery of 16 jets from 2018-19 onwards. He also said "we are going to build around 1,000 helicopters including Kamov 226, LCH (Light Combat Helicopter), ALH (Advanced Light Helicopter) in the next 10 years,". This is a tall order. Can Modi magic transform HAL? HAL in collaboration with BAE upgraded the jet trainer Hawk Mk132 into light attack aircraft Hawk-I for low intensity conflicts. Hawk-i is capable of delivering precision Munitions including Air to Ground and close combat weapons, self defence capabilities through Electronic Warfare systems, digital map generator and operational reliability through new Dual Hot stand-by Mission Computer Avionics architecture supported by indigenous high accuracy and high Altitude Radio Altimeter, IFF MKXII, Data Transfer system, CMDS and RWR. Such "light attack aircraft" are adept at several missions that high-performance fighters are ill suited to perform. Flying slower, their pilots get more time to identify targets, especially over jungle terrain, or when targets are camouflaged. In mountains, accuracy is extremely important because even narrowly missing a target on a sharp ridgeline means the bomb or rocket strikes harmlessly, hundreds of feet below. Light attack aircraft allow greater accuracy. One can hope all existing Hawk Mk132 to become light attack aircraft in a specified timeframe. Can Modi bring aache din for Indian Aeronautics industry and HAL? HAL needs more assembly lines for Tejas, LCH, Hawk-I etc. or completely handover production to private sector players who can produce jets in large numbers like Maruti.Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently said state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) willhave to scale up production of Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), asserting that the government has not "ditched" the project for any other fighter jet.Seeing speedup of performance, Delhi is now making extra demands to Moscow when it comes to the joint production of a Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA). India may go in for this joint venture only under the condition of a full-scale technology transfer and if Russia provided help in the development of the indigenous Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA). According to media, the Indian side bases such demands on the experience of the Sukhoi-30MKI jet acquisition programme, which cost India Rs 55,717 crore ($8.4 billion) without any tangible help in developing indigenous fighter-manufacturing capabilities. The recipient company Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) is still unable to manufacture the Sukhois on its own.HAL / DRDO Tejas took first flight in 2001 but Final Operational Clearance (FOC) received in December 2018. NDA defence minister Manohar Parikar checks AMCA model. HAL AMCA is still in models for twenty years (1995-2015) and DRDO’s ADE / ADA labs are still conducting wind tunnel tests. With this speed it may take more than 100 years to fly this jet.