The government has taken off two major Israeli arms suppliers, Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael (not to be confused with French Rafale jets), off the blacklist which restricted or suspended dealings with the companies.
According to a report in The Times of India, during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha on 6 August, Monday, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said the Defence Ministry has removed the two firms from blacklist in April.
WHY THE BLACKLISTING IN THE FIRST PLACE?
IAI and Rafael were being probed by the CBI on charges of corruption. The Ministry of Defence in February had issued a vigilance circular which said four foreign and two Indian arms companies were blacklisted or 'debarred' by the government, TOI reported.
WHICH ARE THE OTHER FIRMS BLACKLISTED?
According to the information shared with Rajya Sabha members on Monday, the defence ministry has put six entities on the list of banned firms while 14 others have been put on the list of suspended companies, PTI reported.
Singapore Technologies Kinetics Limited, Israel Militaries Industries Limited, TS Kisan & Co Pvt Ltd, RK Machine Tools Ltd, Ludhiana, Rheinmetall Air defence (RAD), Zurich and Corporation Defence, Russia are banned.
According to the written reply tabled in the Upper House, among the suspended firms were Denel, South Africa, Shanx Oceaneering, Inter Spiro India Pvt Ltd, Experts Systems, Unitech Enterprises, Kelvin Engineering, Agusta Westland International Ltd, and Atlas group of companies including Atlas Telecom and Atlas Defence Services.
Other companies on the suspended list include Leonardo S.p.A (erstwhile Finmeccanica), IDS, Tunisia, Infotech Design System (IDS), Mauritius, IDS Infotech Ltd, Mohali, Aeromatrix Info Solution Pvt Ltd, Chandigarh and Offset India Solutions (P) Ltd (OIS) and its group of companies, the details provided by the government said.
(WIth inputs from PTI and The Times of India.)
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