Bangalore: Defence Minister A K Antony on Wednesday
said the government was considering a proposal to include
transfer of technology as offsets under the procurement policy
and expand their scope to a few other sectors.
His comments come a month after the Defence Ministry
allowed investments in the civilian aerospace and internal
security sectors by global vendors bagging defence deals worth
over Rs 300 crore under the offsets clause.
"It is expanded to three sectors now but we feel that
there is scope for some more sectors. There is a proposal for
transfer of most modern technology as offsets; it must be also
be included," Antony told a press conference here.
He was asked if the government would accept transfer of
technology as offsets under its procurement policy. The
offsets clause mandates reinvestment of at least 30 per cent
of the worth of deals above Rs 300 crore into Indian defence,
aerospace and internal security sectors.
Antony said the Defence Ministry has appointed a
committee under the Director General, Acquisitions to hold
discussions in this regard with all the stakeholders including
the DRDO, the three Services and the industry and a final
decision in this regard would be taken by the Defence
Acquisition Council (DAC).
Asked if the changes made in the policy would be
applicable to the ongoing procurement procedures also, the
Minister said, "Whether it is the Defence Procurement
Procedure or some other policy, we will implement the changes
only in prospective as implementing them in retrospective may
benefit a few manufacturers."
He said the offsets policy was an evolving one and would
be changed "whenever" there a need to do so.
Asked about his comment on India receiving low-level
defence technology as imports, Antony said no country would
transfer A-level technology to any country and India will have
to develop state-of-the-art weapon systems on its own.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, February 09, 2011, 19:43