India is one of the ICAO’s founder members, having attended the Chicago Conference in 1944, and has since been a member of the council of the ICAO, including the Provisional ICAO between 1944 and 1947.  India has maintained a permanent delegation at the headquarters of ICAO in Montreal.  India is fully committed to the aims and objectives of the ICAO and has participated in ICAO’s organizational and governance activities in a very cooperative, constructive and positive manner.

India’s contribution to ICAO

            India has made a rich contribution to the safe and orderly development of international civil aviation and promoted cooperation and friendship amongst contracting states.  India’s contribution to the following in the current triennium are worth mentioning.

Ø       Chairman, Council Committee for Finance

Ø       Member, Council Committee for Air Transport

Ø       Member, Council Committee on Unlawful Interference

Ø       Vice-Chairman, International Finance Facility for Aviation Safety (IFFAS)

Ø       Member, Committee of Aviation Environmental Protection

Ø       Member, Commission on Processing of Applications for the posts of Directors (COPAD)

Ø       Member, Special Group on Modernization of Rome Convention 1952

Ø       Member, Aviation Security Panel

Ø       Member, Facilitation Panel

Ø       Member, Airport Economics Panel

Ø       Several experts on working groups and panels of ICAO

Ø       Secondments of officials to ICAO

Ø       Regular contributions to ICAO, including voluntary contribution to Avsec Plan of Action and IFFAS

Ø       Hosted a number of regional meetings and seminars in India with the regional office of ICAO

India and Cooperation Projects in Asia Pacific under ICAO

            India has played an effective role in some of the regional initiatives launched by the ICAO:

Ø       Cooperative Development of Operational Safety and Airworthiness Project-South Asia (COSCAP-SA), which has benefited from 930 personnel from India, 109 from SAARC and 1,200 from the aviation industry.

Ø       India will also support other initiatives such as the Cooperative Aviation Security Programme-Asia-Pacific (CASP-AP) and Cooperative Arrangement for Preventing the Spread of Communicable Diseases through Air Travel (CAPSCA).

Ø       India remains committed to the promotion of safety, security and continuity of international civil aviation in the region as well as through well-defined initiatives of the ICAO.

Training Programmes

            National Institute of Aviation Management and Research (NIAMAR) has run the ICAO Trainair project since 1995 and successfully organized regional and national-level programmes, besides collaborating and running joint programmes with several international aviation agencies such as IATA and ACI.

            India has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ICAO to launch an ICAO-India Developing Countries Training Programme to train aviation personnel from developing countries.

             India will also collaborate and offer to run the following training programmes in collaboration with reputed universities and international organizations:

Ø       Airport Executive Leadership Programme (AELP), run by the ACI and the Concordia University.

Ø       Airport Management Professional Accreditation Programme (AMPAP), run jointly by the ICAO and the ACI.

Ø       Avesec Professional Manager course run jointly by the ICAO and the Concordia University

Ø       Specialized programmes to be run by the Concordia University and the AAI under an MoU signed between the two.

Technical Cooperation

            India has signed an umbrella Letter of Understanding (LoU) with the ICAO in February 2007, during the visit of the Secretary General of ICAO, to promote exchange of information relating to projects in civil aviation; to ensure increased participation of the AAI in ICAO’s Technical Cooperation Services; participation in a strategic advisory capacity for planning and development of major infrastructure projects; involvement of Indian training institutions in the ICAO Trainair Central Unit,; listing of training courses in the ICAO Training Directory and recognition of NIAMAR to conduct the ‘Train the Trainer’ programme under SMS.

            India proposes to set up an ICAO Technical Cooperation Mission Office in India (ICAOTCM) to coordinate a large number of projects with various aviation related entities in India in collaboration with ICAO TCP.

Safety

            India is committed to the promotion of global aviation safety.  In connection with this, the following are worth mentioning:

Ø       The ICAO carried out an initial audit of India in 1999, followed by a USOAP comprehensive audit in 2006.  The audit results indicate a high level of compliance with the ICAO’s SARPs.

Ø       India has given consent to publish a summary report of the initial audit to strengthen the ICAO’s initiative towards transparency and sharing of safety-related information.

Ø       India supports ICAO’s initiatives to assist states with the correction of safety-related deficiencies through the IFFAS.  India is currently the Vice-Chairman of the IFFAS and makes voluntary contributions to it.

Ø       India has an accident-free record in scheduled operations since 2001.

MC/GK