Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews April 26, 2012 As I began pondering on the state of the defense offsets policy that was to be released last year and still hasn’t been officially released despite major guidelines worked out and given recently to the media, I was informed by an official “they were ironing out issues on the transfer of technology.” What makes us the way we are, I asked a doyen of the industry much loved by all and very experienced in the ways of the world. He told me calmly in a state of attained nirvana, the vacillating and inconsistent ways of the government would also come to pass. Quoting the Bible, “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die….. a time to be silent and a time to speak….. Has the time come to speak, one wonders. Or is this a policy paralysis –to borrow from the words of the economic advisor- that will take its own time to heal? Or will we continue to cut a sorry figure against the gaze of the w...

Posted by- Neelam Mathews Time- 1:00pm IST While detailed amendments on the Offset Policy are awaited, the Indian MoD has amended the list of civil aerospace products that are eligible for offsets. For the Defence Procurement Procedures (DPP) 2011, the civil aerospace products eligible for Offsets stands modified as per the following:- Ammended version Implication Annexure VI to Appendix D (Refer to Para 2.1a to Appendix D) §   All types of fixed wing as well as rotary aircraft including their air frames, aero engines,aircraft components and avionics. §   Aircraft design and engineering services. §   Technical publications §   Raw material and semi-finished goods. §   Flying training institutions and technical training institutions (excluding civil infrastructure). §   Design, Development, Manufacture, Upgrade of all types of fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft or their airframes, aero engines, avionics, i...

Neelam Mathews New Delhi June 2, 2011 Defense contracts raise concerns about offsets in India Printed headline: Seeking Clarity India has short-listed Dassault’s Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon for the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) bid, which is expected to result in procurement of 126 fighters worth $12 billion. A huge battle over industrial terms is now expected as vendors submit their revised offset proposals later this year. The schedule for production transfer is aggressive, and the technology that India expects to be transferred through co-development work generated by offsets is raising concerns among vendors about intellectual property violations and the potential for counterfeit products. Observers say India’s lack of clarity on such violations may result in OEMs finding ways to circumvent the use of advanced technology, on the grounds that India does not have safeguards to protect manufacturers that license tech...

Neelam Mathews April 20, 2011 Time: 11:15 P.M IST Even as the Offset policy guidelines were expanded to include civil aerospace, internal security and training in January, further additions are now expected. “There will be changes (to be announced) in April,” Minister of State for Defense M.M Pallam Raju told Aerospace Diary at the 2 nd National Manufacturing and Innovation Summit. This was reaffirmed by Vivek Rae, Director General Acquisitions, who said the MoD was “modifying offset guidelines in the near future.” The “revised” procedures in the DPP 2011 will include transfer of technology, which Raju confirmed was “a ticklish issue,” but needed to be addressed. It is also likely that the offsets banking time-lines will be extended from two to five years. Raju was emphatic that the Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) order would not be covered under the DPP 2011. When asked if not including the around $10billion project under DPP 2011 would be counterproductive to help ...

EXCLUSIVE Filed at- 12:30pm IST April 8, 2011 Neelam Mathews Bangalore-based SATTVA Aero Accessories and Systems is entering into indigenous design, development and production of electrical motors, electrical generators, hydraulic systems and actuators for the aerospace industry. Set up three former HAL executives , AASPL has delivered certified Main and Nose Landing Gear Actuators for the Light Transport Aircraft SARAS, FFF electrical generators of 5 kW and 20 kW for military aviation, 12 kW starter motor for civil aviation and Electro Mechanical Linear Actuator (EMLA) for surface actuation system designed and developed by the company. “Our USP is development of line-replaceable units for the aerospace industry in India..We can also overhaul and maintain them,” says founder S.K.B Parekh who headed Quality, Design and Independent Business Unit of HAL Aircraft Accessories. LRUs improve maintenance operations, because they can be stocked and replaced quickly from on-site inventor...