With the opening up of defence manufacturing to private sector, the Defence Ministry has made it mandatory for all private players to report to the Intelligence Bureau (IB) about the visit of foreign nationals to their production facilities. This step will prevent leakage of classified information about Indian military projects.
In a circular issued recently, the Defence Ministry directed that CEOs of private sector firms will have to report to the Intelligence Bureau about the visit of foreign nationals within 15 days of any such visit to their production facility. Moreover, these firms will have to compulsorily provide details of the purpose and the details of the visits by these foreign nationals to the Intelligence Bureau, it said.
The Defence Ministry has also made it mandatory for the private defence firms to deploy a security guard with the foreign nationals while they are visiting their facilities, it said.
Foreigners would not be allowed to visit the areas in the facility where defence projects are going on. These companies are put under the purview of the Official Secrets Act and any violation or non-compliance of the directions would be strictly penalised by the authorities concerned, the circular said.
Steps such as de-licensing a large number of defence-related equipment and increase in the FDI limit by the NDA Government are expected to draw a large number of firms in the military manufacturing sector in the near future.