For that we need one of two things (or both preferably):
a) Sufficient economic margins to lower opportunity cost (we are still not there for things like jet engines, by default)
b) Strong willingness to sacrifice/invest to gain long term. This can temporarily solve a) if done in a well managed way. India does this already in certain areas....but for jet engine we need to increase several fold to get an organisation like GTRE to act in better concert with private production entities capable of executing efficiently. This needs DRDO to be reformed and excellent bureaucracy and leadership along the lines found in ISRO.
Single crystal blade tech is already done in India....the technology itself has been around since before world war 2 (the main issue lies with efficient production and quality control - both of which can be easily achieved with relatively minimal RnD).
The crucial issues lie with superalloy composition and the manufacturing techniques regarding casting and forging. Even in my company (PW), no one person knows every single detail, high tech know how is quite compartmentalised for protecting IP and trade secrets. When you get physically import people, you have to start from scratch and ground up all over again (even if you import a whole dedicated team)....so it may save you a few years....but it will end up costing roughly the same resources. Thats why the Chinese are still having many problems and will continue to have such problems for some time yet...the gap will narrow quite slowly because materials science is a tricky mistress in the long run with no real short cuts. I know this firsthand, I have been to our facility in Chengdu China...and I saw just how careful PW in allowing only the relatively well known technologies to be operationalised there for supply chains (blisks, LP compressors, combustors etc).
Once Indian market is big enough and there is more manufacturing taking place within India, same thing will naturally happen there. I think in the coming 10 years or so, there will be much expansion in transport propulsion technologies in India....provided Skill India and Make in India programs are at least 50% successful. But real top notch RnD to completely be on the cutting edge will take a full generation I think.
