The Government cleared 26 proposals for industrial licences on Wednesday, most of them in the defence sector, from companies such as Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Punj Lloyd and Max Aerospace and Aviation.

A total of 29 applications, some of them pending for almost five years, were considered by the industrial licensing committee meeting chaired by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Secretary Amitabh Kant.

“Of the 29 applications, only three were deferred as the licensing committee wanted some more details. All the rest were cleared,” a DIPP official told BusinessLine .

The deferred proposals included ones from Samtel Thales Avionics, Indtech Global Systems and Rajasthan Explosives & Chemicals Ltd. Of the cleared proposals, 20 were from the defence sector, five were from explosive manufacturers while one was from the consumer group sector. The DIPP has been fast-tracking clearance of pending industrial licences over the last few months following simplification of the FDI policy in defence.

Last year, the FDI cap in defence was raised from 26 per cent to 49 per cent and portfolio investments were permitted up to 24 per cent of the total equity of the investee / joint venture company under automatic route. The requirement of 51 per cent equity ownership by a single Indian investor/company was also done away with. Industrial licences were granted to Tata Motors for overhaul of all armoured vehicles and infantry, to Mahindra & Mahindra for manufacture of torpedo launchers and decoy launchers, to Idea Force Technology for unmanned aerial system, Max Aerospace & Aviation for missiles and launcher systems and Tech Mahindra for IT services and software development for defence.

Kuber Products was allowed to transfer cigarette manufacturing licence from New Tobacco Company Ltd to itself.

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