HAL board revamp by 1 April, says exiting chief R K Tyagi

India's state-owned aviation manufacturing company Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd will have its reform plans in place by 1 April, including the restructuring of its board, HAL's chairman and managing director R K Tyagi said today, a day before he demits office.

Hindustan Aeronautics, focussed on the defence sector, was set up for research and manufacture to indigenise India's warplane manufacturing; but has signally failed under bureaucratic control and is now little more than an assembly plant for foreign-made defence aircraft.

Tyagi said HAL has carried out other active changes in the policies of the company as well.

Under the new structure of the board, the company will have five full-time directors (including the CMD), two government-appointed directors, and seven independent directors, as against the current configuration of nine full-time directors, six independent directors and two government-appointed directors. The new structure would include at least one woman director.

Stating that the company has got all approvals from the concerned authorities, HAL secretary Ashok Tandon said that it will be in place by 1 April 2015. He also said that the issue of sharing confidential information with the book-running manager is still to be sorted out. HAL said that they were all ready for the listing process to carry out a proposed 10 per cent divestment.

Tyagi said that the company will be 'desirable' for shareholders as it has abilities to match the order books of global aviation giants like Boeing or BAE.