Pune: Out of 30 offset partners of Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of Rafale fighter jet, in India, at least 10 are based in Maharashtra, including three from Pune. The French company is in the process of signing contracts with about 100 more companies and the number of companies from the State including those from Pune is set to increase. The companies from Pune are Bharat Forge, MM e-TECH and P3.
India signed an agreement with France for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in a fly-away condition as part of the upgrading process of the Indian Air Force equipment. The estimated cost of the deal is Rs 58,000 crore. As per the offset clause, Dassault Aviation will invest 30 per cent of the Rs 58,000 crore in India’s military aeronautics-related research programmes and 20 per cent into local production of Rafale components.
For data conversion (software engineering and services), Dassault has tied up with Pune-based MM e-Tech and P3 and for airframe mechanical parts and sub-assemblies, it has an agreement with Bharat Forge.
In Mumbai, the company has entered into agreements with Airworks, Godrej & Boyce, L&T Infotech, Taj Air, Vedanta, while in Nagpur, it has joint ventures - Dassault Reliance joint venture and Reliance Thales joint venture.
has entered into agreements with 30 companies, which comprises 40 per cent of the total offset obligations and Reliance’s share is 10 per cent.
The delivery of the first fighter aircraft is expected in September 2019.
As per the Ministry of Defence documents, the offset policy was formally announced for the first time in 2005 and has been revised several times.
To leverage its huge arm imports in order to develop a strong indigenous industry, a flow-back arrangement is made in the defence contracts, which is widely known as offsets and constitutes a certain percentage of the contract value. The key objectives of the Defence Offset Policy are to leverage the capital acquisitions to develop Indian defence industry by fostering the development of internationally competitive enterprises; augmenting capacity for research and development in defence sector and to encourage the development of synergistic sector like civil aerospace and internal security.
The offset can be discharged by any means such as a direct purchase of eligible products/services, FDI in joint ventures and investment towards equipment and transfer of technology. As per Defence Offset Guidelines, the foreign Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) is free to select any Indian company as its offset partner.
