Amit Cowshish replies: The business practices, professionalism, and potential of the private sector in India for undertaking the design, development and production of sophisticated defence equipment are second to none in the world. If, despite this, India has not become a defence manufacturing hub, it is largely because of the economic and geopolitical milieu of the country, which is vastly different from the one in which the private defence companies bloomed in the US after the Second World War.

Amit Cowshish replies: The standard format of Request for Proposal (RfP) given in the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 (DAP 2020) includes the Fall Clause. This clause requires the bidders to submit a written undertaking as a part of the technical offer that they have not supplied, or are not supplying, similar systems or subsystems at a price lower than that offered in the present bid to any other ministry or department of the Government of India.

Kishore Kumar Khera replies: A contract for procurement of 62 C295 aircraft is under consideration for replacement of 56 HS748 Avro for the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the balance six aircraft for the Indian Coast Guard. Of these, 16 aircraft are to be built by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and the balance aircraft will be manufactured in India. To facilitate aircraft manufacturing in India, certain Transfer of technology (ToT) is inevitable.