Bangalore: Indian Air Force (IAF) will soon launch a reality campaign in engineering colleges and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and allow the youth experience life in an air station to attract them into the force, Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy said on June 27.

"We are not competing with the private sector for people; what we are looking at is youth with certain 'grit' and a desire for challenge," Krishnaswamy told reporters.

IAF had begun interaction with institutions and state governments for the campaign, which would begin later in 2003.

Stating that IAF was learning from the campaigns done by private sector, Krishnaswamy said, "We have been underselling our unique selling propositions (USPs) and we are not aware of our excellent quality standards and have not reached out to youngsters."

Asserting that there was no shortage of manpower in the IAF, he said there was no proportional representation from many states and this was being bridged.

"We launched a campaign a few months ago in Tripura, which was sending on an average 10 to 15 people, but this year it was 110 people. And the quality of people is very high and some of them are easily fit to be officers," Krishnaswamy said, adding the personal touch, which was lacking in IAF, was being bridged.

He said IAF approach now was to hire specialists in human resources management, legal and software among others.

PTI