New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has criticized the Ministry of Defence for the policies related to offsets. Under this policy, the government has made a deal with French aviation company Dassault Aviation for 36 Rafale aircraft. The top auditor CAG has said in a report that the French firm has not yet met its offset conditions for the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO).
Under the offset policy, the condition is that some part of the value of the deal with any foreign company should come in the form of foreign direct investment in India, including the transfer of technology, advance manufacturing of components locally or creating jobs. Huh.
In its report tabled in Parliament, the CAG stated that in offset of the four agreements related to the ’36 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), Vendor Dasau Aviation and MBDA initially proposed (in September 2015) that they 30 percent of the offset obligations will be met by giving DRDO high-grade technology.
The report said that ‘DRDO needed technical support from them to develop the (Kaveri) engine for light combat aircraft indigenously, but till date the vendor has not clarified anything about transferring this technology. . ‘ The CAG has said in the report that ‘the Ministry of Defence needs to review this policy and its implementation. They need to identify and overcome solutions from foreign suppliers as well as Indian industries to take advantage of offsets. ‘
Dassault Aviation had said that it would meet its offset obligations over time, but due to the Coronavirus crisis, the process has slowed down. India has signed a deal with the French company for 36 Rafale jets worth 58,000 crores. Five of these multirole jets have been included in the Indian Airforce.
