By Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DELHI — Procedural disputes are delaying development of the Indian Army's Tactical Communication System (TCS), the first weapon project slated for the "Make in India" category, said a Ministry of Defence source.
Two development agencies (DAs) were tapped to compete for TCS. The first is a consortium composed of private sector defense companies, and the other is state-owned Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL). The private company consortium said it would not proceed with development of a TCS prototype until it receives the same tax incentives as are given to BEL, and insists that the intellectual property rights of the system be vested with the developer and not the Ministry of Defence.
Since the selection of the DAs in early 2014, no headway has been made in the development of a TCS prototype, the source added.
The private sector DA includes Larsen & Toubro, Tata Power SED and HCL Ltd., which have formed a special purpose vehicle based on an equity-sharing basis.
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