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| Indian made Pinaka MBRL (Wiki Info) |
By Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DELHI — A recommendation by an Indian Defence Ministry committee that strategic partners for major defense projects be limited to domestic companies with healthy balance sheets has raised objections that such a policy would unfairly restrict new, emerging firms that likely would have greater debt.
"The report of the special committee [Aatre Committee] headed by India's former Defence Research and Development Organization chief Dr. Vasudev Kalkunte Aatre, if accepted, will change the way India will acquire future weaponry," said Nitin Mehtaa a defense analyst here.
The recommendations, submitted to the MoD last week but not made public so far, lay down criteria for selection of strategic partners that would favor a few major defense companies and leave out the upcoming ones, said an MoD source. The report recommends selections be based solely on commercial strength.
Such a standard could lead to rejection of rising domestic companies as they would have debt related to investment in defense infrastructure. Rejecting these companies as strategic partners could spark opposition to the effort and threaten the whole initiative.
Read the full story at DefenseNews