No invitation for Dassault to Vibrant Gujarat Summit this year

On a day when Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was fiercely refuting Congress's charges on the Rafale deal in the Parliament, the Gujarat government decided to avoid any sort of controversy by deciding not to invite Dassault Aviation, an aircraft manufacturing company, to the Vibrant Gujarat Summit. 

The Congress accused that the BJP-led government scrapped a deal for 126 aircraft negotiated by the previous UPA government to go for an overpriced deal for 36 aircraft only to help Anil Ambani, whose inexperienced defence company bagged an offset contract with Dassault.

The state government will be organising a plenary meet of representatives from the defence sector on January 18, during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit (VGS), which Sitharaman, experts, and other corporate representatives are expected to attend. 

Jai Prakash Shivahare, CEO, Dholera SIR special project, said, “We are trying to bring major players. However, since we can not accommodate everyone in the panel discussion, there is a limitation that we have to consider. We have focused on some particular players. Bharat Forge is the biggest player in India and Lockheed Martin and Airbus are major international players.”

The Gujarat government has pinned high hopes on the investments in defence and aerospace manufacturing. However, development still seems a long-shot as no investment has been made till date, even after years of signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with these companies.

“Airbus, Lockheed Martin and Baba Kalyani of Bharat Forge have committed that as and when they get the contract for manufacturing, they will be in Dholera as they have signed MoU with us. Since the government of India is the sole client in India, they will have to wait for the contract,” Shivhare added.

Besides this, Gujarat has been trying hard to attract more investments in defence but the state's share is extremely low.

Advisor to Gujarat government for defence and aerospace industries, Air Marshal RK Dhir, said, “The percentage of state’s contribution in defence and aerospace industry is very low and that is in minuscule as compared to other states like Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.”

The state government came up with defence and aeprospace manufacturing policy and has been projecting Dholer SIR as an ideal location for many years, however, it is still waiting for players. In fact, Kalashnikov also slipped from its reach when a company from another state got the technology from Kalashnikov for manufacturing AK47 rounds. The first plant in India will come up there, said Dhir. The advisor also added that the same company applied for the contract of AK47 Rifle manufacturing as well.

LASHING CHARGES

• Congress accused that the BJP-led government scrapped a deal for 126 aircraft negotiated by the previous UPA government to go for an overpriced deal for 36 aircraft only to help Anil Ambani, whose inexperienced defence company bagged an offset contract with Dassault.