From this chart, you can easily figure out that India is producing more pilots every year. Reportedly, the Indian aviation market is the third-largest in the world, after China and the US. It’s expanding significantly—2.5 times the global average, making it the fastest-growing market globally.

The figures look staggering unless you learn that over 10,000 pilots remain unemployed in our country. This is despite airlines in India adding 100-110 aircraft to their fleet every year. Why is that the case? If the airlines are adding more aircraft, shouldn’t they be hiring more pilots?

Poor training

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issues commercial pilot licenses (CPL) in India. Though it has issued more licenses yearly, experts suggest that one in three pilots are poorly trained. Hence, they’re unemployable.

India lacks sufficient qualified trainers and quality infrastructure. Many aviation schools in India don’t offer the necessary flying experience to their students. Students must have 200 hours of flying experience to obtain licenses from the DGCA. Some schools have been caught tampering with the number of flying hours so that their students fit the requirements.

Longer working-hours

As the airlines refuse to hire new and unqualified pilots, they’re overworking the existing ones. Pilots have alleged that they’re made to work for longer hours than what’s set down by the DGCA guidelines.

Poaching

Rather than hiring new pilots, airlines have been poaching qualified pilots from each other. Moreover, many qualified pilots have been moving to Gulf carriers like Etihad and Qatar Airways for better pay and benefits, worsening the pilot shortage problem in the country.

Bonus section

Why do we love to procrastinate?

In 2006, two professors from Harvard Business School conducted a study to discover why we procrastinate. They concluded that when procrastinating, our ‘should self’ and ‘want self’ are in competitive tension. Difficult to understand, right? Let’s understand it using a simple analogy.

Say there are two versions of you: Present you and Future you. We tend to care more about our Present selves. We like to make choices that bring immediate benefits for the Present self. On the other hand, your Future self wants your actions to get long-term benefits. This is known as ‘present bias’.

How do we beat this present bias?

The best way of beating the present bias or procrastination is to align the interests of your Present and Future self. Here’s how to do it:

Find your resistance level

Say you need to work on a project and face immense resistance. What’s the minimum time you can focus on the task? One hour? Sounds unpleasant? How about just 30 minutes?

Find your resistance level to set realistic goals.

Make procrastination more costly.

Punishment or negative reinforcement serves as a potent motivator for action. Create structures around you that hold you accountable for procrastinating. Here are some examples:

• Set a public deadline (Tell your colleagues or friends you will finish a specific task within the deadline).

• Remove rewards (No Netflix tonight if I don’t finish reading this many pages of the book).

• Calculate the cost of procrastination. (If I don’t work on this today, I’ll face these consequences…)

Dedicate a space

One way to beat procrastination is to switch off your phone and cut yourself from the world to focus on the task. But that’s easier said than done. Instead, you could dedicate a space where the only action you perform is to focus on your task. Say it’s your desk.

Want to use your phone? Leave your desk and use your phone somewhere else. Is your mind racing with thought? Stand up and walk around a little.

Once you sit at your desk, your mind should see that as a cue to start working or studying.

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