With the Modi Government clearing deals worth over `1,25,000 crore in the last six months, top French companies are eager to enter the Indian market. The Government’s stress on ‘Make in India’ policy to boost the local defence industry has prompted these companies to identify Indian partners for setting up manufacturing facilities. With estimated 30 billion dollars expenditure at stake, India has planned for modernising the armed forces in the next five years.
French weapon manufacturers, including Nexter, MBDA, Dassault, DCNS and Airbus, are more than willing to set up factories in India under the ‘Make in India’ policy, but want more clarity on the new policy initiative. These companies will also bid for the supply of 155mm long-range artillery gun, six submarines, light transport aircraft and surface to air missiles besides light utility helicopters and armoured personnel carriers.
While these companies prefer to manufacture the weapon platforms within their own plants, they are willing to adapt to Modi’s push for indigenisation of the nascent Indian defence industry.
Allaying apprehensions that foreign manufacturers do not pass on cutting edge technology to the Indian manufacturers, the French assured a visiting group of Indian journalists, including this reporter last week that their association with India is more than five-decade-old and they will strive to further strengthen the ties by providing state-of-the art know how to their local partners, French officials said.
‘Make in India’ policy stipulates that an Indian company be it private or public sector undertaking has to set up a manufacturing unit in India and can tie up with a foreign manufacturer for building the weapon platform here. This will give a major flip to the Indian defence industry as the Government has also raised the FDI cap from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.
DCNS, which is already building six Scorpene submarines at Mazagaon Docks limited, Mumbai is already shaping its marketing strategy for Make In India for a `16,000 crore deal for amphibious warfare ships called landing Platform Docks(lPD).
“Of course, if we had the choice we would rather prefer to build in our country but we have to adapt to the context. We know the trend is there. So the idea is more to see how to capture the trend,” Jerome Penicaud, Bid Manager Surface Ships and Naval Systems Division of DCNS said.
He said this when asked if DCNS was tailoring its strategy for meeting the requirements of the ‘Make in India’ policy. “For the lPD project, here the idea is that the ships are built by one of the Indian shipyards that has been selected. We are partners. We are here to bring the design and necessary technical assistance...That is the way we are addressing Make in India,” he said. DCNS has tied up with Indian private shipyard Pipavav for this project.
Other big project that DCNS is eyeing is the P-75I under which six submarines will be built in India at a cost of about Rs 50,000 crore. All the six submarines will be manufactured by a single shipyard after a Defence Ministry committee reviews the capabilities of the public and private sector shipyards. DCNS is already scouting for an Indian partner in this regard.
Another major project that the French firms will be bidding for is the Rs 15,570-crore proposal to acquire 814 artillery guns. While 100 such guns of 155mm calibre would be bought off the shelf, 714 would be made in India. The Indian Army has not acquired a long range artillery gun for the last 26 years since the Bofors gun controversy. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) last month decided to opt for ‘Make in India’ route for these guns.
“It is one of the major deals that we can have around the world. You can imagine that for Nexter and our partner larsen & Toubro (l&T), it is an important project,” Jean-Michel Domitrovic, executive vice-president of Nexter said.
While the tender or Request for Proposal (RFP) is yet to be issued, the French firm has already tied up with larsen and Toubro and Ashok leyland to produce the 155mm/52 calibre mounted gun system being called Indian Caesar.
MBDA is keen to partner with Indian companies for various missile projects, including surface to air missiles (SRSAM). In fact, the French firm is already working with Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO) in designing Maitri missile for IAF, Navy and Army.
As regards raising the FDI cap from 26 per cent to 49 per cent, managing director of Airbus Helicopters in India, Xavier Hay said, “the evolution from 26 per cent to 49 is positive. We are looking forward to any order on further evolution on that.”