Thiruvananthapuram, May 14 (IANS): The indigenisation of advanced materials like titanium is the key to aerospace manufacturing in India, T. Suvarna Raju, CMD of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore, said here Thursday.

Raju who is in the capital city for a seminar, pointed out that when it comes to raw material for aerospace manufacturing, be it plastics, aluminium, titanium or composites, there is a wide capability gap in the country and therefore industries, especially in the private sector, must come forward to overcome this lacunae.

"One can achieve this dream by taking research on strategic materials in mission mode in niche areas such as electronic materials, advanced-high temperature alloys for propulsion systems and composite materials", he added.

He also called for synergy between efforts of various government and private establishments in the defence, space and atomic energy sectors to ensure that resources are not wasted through duplication.

He stressed on two pronged strategy to fulfil the Make in India drive in this sector through strengthening of R&D ecosystem for strategic materials and processes and by augmenting manufacturing facilities.

He also touched upon the importance of industry-academia association and significance of constantly emerging new materials.