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While many Indian players in defence aerospace are looking at the $10-billion 126 aircraft MMRCA (Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) deal anxiously, not everybody is enthusiastic about it. One such company is Rockwell Collins India Pvt Ltd.
Mr MKR Prasad, the MD of this company, told Business Line that his company may have problems with getting some contracts because, though it has offices in Hyderabad and has Indians working there, it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of a foreign company. He said that the Government of India should change its attitude about allowing only companies with a 74 per cent Indian stake to participate in offsets.
“Europe and Canada have changed,” he said. He felt that his company meets the standards of the logic behind the need for offsets in spirit if not in letter. “We operate from India, employ Indians and we earn for India,” he said.
But he is open to the fact that India will change. And even if this doesn't work out before the MMRCA deal, he is not overly concerned because his company is working with MMRCA participants such as Boeing, EuroFighter, Gripen and others, who may outsource to his company, and his company may in turn outsource some work to an Indian company that meets current offset requirements.
Including Indian firms
And so he should find the attitude of Mr Inderjit Sial, Country Head, Saab International India AB, heartening. Saab is the company behind Gripen and Mr Sial said, “Saab doesn't want to just meet the offset obligation. We want to ensure that Indian companies form a part of our supply chain. We are working with everybody from PSUs to large Indian houses to SMEs on this.”
While Rockwell Collins may have to depend on Saab and others, Axis Aerospace & Technologies Pvt Ltd is enthused because it has a good chance on its own. Its Vice-Chairman, Mr Sudhakar Gande, said that, apart from offsets which it hopes to get, there is a huge market for outsourcing. “Europe is expensive and many companies are looking at countries such as India and China,” he said. And like any other Indian player, he is also keenly looking to get a big slice of the pie.
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