Respected Shri Soma Sundaram ji, Hon’ble member of the Board of Airport authority of India, Distinguished guests and delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am indeed delighted and truly honoured to welcome a galaxy of distinguished and most notable luminaries of aviation and aerospace industry who have gathered here today, coming from different parts of the country and abroad, to participate in this seminar on the “March towards Aeronautical Information Management”. My heartiest greetings and a very warm welcome to each one of you.

We at Prime Group, have always been at the forefront in terms of technology based solutions in all the diversified areas that we have been focused in during the last quarter of a century. Be it Power & Energy, Power conditioning, Precision Engineering, Investment Castings, electronic production line machines, machine tools, software development and of course aviation & aerospace. With over 1500 direct and indirect employees and with 70 offices across the country and abroad, our one point agenda at Prime Group for last 25 years has been to empower our country and our economy, with the latest technological solutions from across the globe, and more specifically in the Infrastructure and core sectors of the economy .

As yet another step in that direction, we are extremely happy and indeed proud that our Group Company Planet PCI Infotech Ltd., under the able and dynamic leadership of Shri Vivek Saxena, the Director & CEO of this company as also of the other aerospace initiatives of the Prime Group, jointly with our partner & collaborator company IDS of Italy, a world renowned company in the field of technology solutions for Aviation, Aerospace and Defense segments, have successfully concluded the execution and implementation of AIS automation project recently for the Airport Authority of India. We are grateful for this opportunity to the Airport authority and to it’s very dynamic and committed officials at all levels, for their initiatives and for their valuable support in making this unique achievement a reality.

We have always been very conscious of the growing need for air safety across the skies, not just for India, but also over the entire sub-continent and this recent feat and this accomplishment relating to the AIS automation project with Airport Authority of India, gives to all of us at the Prime Group, immense satisfaction of making, yet another humble and yet another vital contribution towards our country, it’s aerospace management and towards the aerospace Industry in particular. Today, we are witnessing a truly remarkable growth in aviation – both in terms of traffic and infrastructure – but this only emphasizes the urgency and need for absorbing and expanding technologies that can deliver a far more efficient and a far more transparent management protocol. We strongly believe, that by making such technologies available for access by any of the participant in the ATM environment - where and when required, such technological moves – like the move towards AIM - would mean that aeronautical information is managed efficiently and shared in real time on a system–wide basis.

As per one estimate and of which you are all well aware, India is poised to be and will hopefully continue to be the fastest growing country for air travel for at least the next ten to fifteen years with the domestic traffic increasing annually by an average of about 12%, thus making it one of the strong contenders for the highest growth in the world, particularly in the domestic sector.

Likewise, Indian passenger fleet is slated to increase four-fold, or perhaps more, while 14 of the top 20 airports in the world are projected be in the Asia Pacific region and this includes Mumbai and Delhi airports, and then there are a large number of greenfield airports slated to come up in addition. Well, quite a long journey from the early days when our aircrafts landed even on plain grounds and almost without any navigational aids !, Surely, nowhere near what all infrastructure and technologies that we use today and what all we are heading for use in the coming decades.

While this remarkable growth in aviation – both in terms of traffic and infrastructure – is a very healthy and a very positive development, but it also put’s heavy pressure on all of us who are actively involved in this field and in this Industry, to build up, develop, introduce and adapt technologies and systems so as to cope up with the growing pressures, and that too maintaining utmost safety and security standards. And this indeed is an onerous responsibility on the present generation of aviation and aerospace experts and technocrats across the globe and I have no doubt that we are not only competent and confident, but are absolutely committed to take on this challenge to the best of our abilities to the make the future generations of pilots and passengers, feel not only safe and comfortable, but actually proud of our accomplishments and contributions.

It is extremely heartening that such a distinguished audience with aviation experts from across the country and abroad, have gathered here today while India celebrates 100 years of it’s aviation history.On this important and momentous occasion, I urge upon you, to kindly share in your discussions and deliberations over the next two days, your valuable insights with your vast experience and expertise on “marching towards AIM” and make your valuable contributions with path breaking ideas and solutions towards making our skies safer and friendlier for the present and for the future generations to come.

I am thankful and grateful to the dignitaries who have very kindly spared their valuable time and graced the occasion and to the delegates who have come all the way from different parts of the country and abroad to participate in this two day seminar starting today and all this is certainly very motivating for us at Prime group, to carry forward with our mission of providing technology based solutions to the aviation and aerospace industry on a continuous basis as an integral part of the system and as a long term player in this exclusive and very vital and futuristic, aeronautical arena.

I am also grateful to our partner company IDS and particularly to it’s dynamic President Mr. Giovanni Bardelli, whose representatives have come all the way from Italy and in full strength, to be with us and to participate in this important seminar on AIM and thereby giving a clear signal of their serious and long term interest and commitment in supporting our joint initiatives in this field in India and in the sub-continent.

I welcome you all once again and wish the conference, a Grand success.

Thank you, ”