In purely dollar terms, the new price represents a 37 percent hike in the cost of the offer to India, but would effectively be even higher given the fall in the value of the rupee against the dollar since 2010.
The Delhi High Court has dismissed the challenge filed by Israel Military Industries (IMI) to its blacklisting, saying there was no merit in its petition.
Dean McCumiskey, Managing Director and Chief Executive of BAE Systems’ India operations told StratPost his company would be open to discussing any question of technical assistance the OFB might require, in its attempt to execute the designs and technology documentation transferred to it as part of the old Bofors howitzer procurement.
“The procurement game is a version of snakes and ladders where there is no ladder but only snakes, and if the snakes bite you somewhere, the whole thing comes back to zero,” Singh said.
The Delhi High Court has placed a hold on the acquisition of artillery guns by the Indian Army without its clearance. In the course of hearings of writ petitions filed by arms company, Singapore Technologies Kinetics, a bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishen Kaul and Justice Rajiv Shakdher passed an interim order on May 02, 2011, asking the Ministry of Defense to refrain from awarding the tender without ‘leave and liberty of the court’.
The upgraded avatar is being displayed at the DefExpo in New Delhi.
The Indian Army has promoted more than 50% of its infantry and artillery Lieutenant Colonels, as well as a smaller percentage of armored officers to the rank of full Colonel.
The Indian Ministry of Defense has blacklisted seven defense companies for alleged involvement in the deals tainted by corruption discovered with the arrest of the former Director General of Ordinance Factories, Sudipta Ghosh.
An insider explains the legacy of the corruption scandal over the Bofors gun deal and how, while the Indian Army has always considered the weapon in question to be eminently satisfactory, the political and bureaucratic fallout continues to be such as to reduce any defense procurement to a crawl.
