Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews March 17, 2013   " Within a few months we are going to change the defense procurement procedure again,” Defense Minister A.K. Antony told Parliament recently, sending shudders down the spines of OEMs who privately voiced their opinion saying this is was a kneejerk reaction to the Augusta Westland scam. Though I am not opinionated and not questioning whether this is right or wrong, good or bad, one wonders if this kneejerk reaction is the way we will design our policies and planning in the present and future?  Calling indigenization the “ultimate solution to the scourge of corruption…. (and) Because of the operational necessity of the services, on the request that they need the most modern equipment to meet the operational necessity, the Government moves to import any high-value equipment from foreign sources,” Antony said."   Here we go again!  Always a loophole! Many OEMs would react to the fact that indigenization and build-out of defen...

Neelam Mathews Dec 14, 2012   Even as the debate between lobbying and bribery rages in India, with no clear distinction being made and for good reason as there are no rules nor regulations to define lobbying, perhaps we could take a cue from the US system that at first glance looks pretty transparent. A click on every company will give details on their spending on campaign contributions. Defense Aerospace Industry Profile, 2011 Total for Defense Aerospace: $59,702,900 Total Number of  Clients  Reported: 53 Total Number of  Lobbyists  Reported: 408 Total Number of  Revolvers : 303 (74.3%)   Campaign Contributions from this industry View totals by:   Client/Parent  |  Subsidiary/Affiliate Client/Parent Total Boeing Co $15,910,000 Lockheed Martin $15,166,845 United Technologies $14,150,000 BAE Systems $4,230,000 European Aeronautic Defence & Space $3,500,000 Space Exploration Technologies $860,000 Finmeccanic...

Neelam Mathews Oct 4, 2012   Two-thirds of the world’s biggest defense companies do not provide enough public evidence about how they fight corruption, according to a new study from Transparency International UK released today. This includes companies from all of the ten largest arms exporting nations like US, Russia, Germany, France, the UK and China—who between them are responsible for over 90 percent of the arms sales around the world, the  Defense Companies Anti-Corruption Index (CI)  shows. The rating is done on good, publicly available evidence of having at least basic ethics and anti-corruption compliance systems in place. HAL, BEML and BEL, were listed under the lower bands. Based on level of evidence for basic anti-corruption systems in place:Ten companies score in the top two bands. Fluor Corporation (only 3% defense) is the only company to score in Band A. In band B are Accenture, BAE Systems, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, Meggitt, Northrop Grumman Co...