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Journalism of Courage
Recommending increase in FDI in the defence production sector,a House panel has asked the Centre to consider a hike over the current 26 per cent limit to bring in much needed investments for research and design and production of weapon systems.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence has urged the government to increase the FDI as it would help in checking and mitigating the steadily expanding deficiency in defence modernisation. The panel has brushed aside the Defence Ministrys argument that an increase would lead to dependence on foreign vendors for critical requirements.
However,V K Saraswat,chief of the indigenous arms developer DRDO,claimed hike in FDI limit would bring more players and increase the level of technology. In his deposition to the panel,Saraswat said,Improved FDI will bring in better participation of accomplished industries from abroad to work with our industries and increase the level of technology in the country. He added that an increase would improve self-reliance but did not quantify the recommended increase in the cap.
Deferred payment due to financial crisis: MoD
The Defence ministry has said it had to defer payment for vital acquisitions such as aircraft and ships to tide over financial crisis in the last budget year but procurements did not stop as the vendors agreed to late payments. Describing how it managed a tight fiscal situation to the House committee on defence,a senior ministry official said payments were deferred to the next financial year after the Finance Ministry was constrained in providing the budget. ENS
