Two Israeli arms companies, Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael have been removed from the blacklist by Indian Government.
The government has taken down two major Israeli arms companies, Rafael and Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) from the blacklist of firms which are suspended or restricted from dealings in India.
This decision was taken in a review meeting between senior defence ministry officials led by the director general after the CBI closed the corruption case involving them in the court. Junior Minister for defence Subhash Bhamre told Rajya Sabha on Monday, “Accordingly, the case has been reviewed and the restriction has been removed.”
In February, defence ministry had issued a vigilance circular which informed that four foreign and two Indian companies were blacklisted by the government. As per a earlier report by TOI, the dealings were suspended with another 14 and restricted with four.
The six blacklisted or debarred companies are Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STK), Israel Military Industries (IMI), Rheinmetall Air Defence, Corporation Defence, T S Kisan & Co, and R K Machine Tools. No business dealing are allowed with these six firms till 2022.
With the removal of these companies from restriction, engine manufacturers Rolls Royce and Tata truck manufacturer now remain in the category. Rafael and IAI were removed from the list based on national security, non-availability of other alternatives and operational urgency.
Israel is India’s second largest defence supplier with sales worth around $1 billion every year. Currently IAI and DRDO are jointly developing a long range surface-to-air-missile (LR-SAM) system for Rs 2,606 crore to arm Indian warships and a medium-range SAM system for IAF at a cost of RS 10,076 crore.
