India has communicated to Germany that at present there is no change in the policy of raising the cap on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from 26 per cent in the defence sector.
With the German defence industry taking up the issue of raising the cap to at least 49 per cent, if not higher, a top Defence Ministry official told his counter parts that the policy of restricting the limit to 26 per cent was not going to undergo a change in the perceivable future.
Special Secretary of Defence Production Ajoy Acharya, who is here leading the official delegation at the Berlin Air Show, told TheHindu that he reiterated the Indian stand during his meeting with both German officials and those of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) Company's Defence and Security (DS).
Earlier, the EADS DS told a group of correspondents from India that while the organisation planned to develop a Centre of Competence for developing a product that will be supplied to its global customers, it suggested the FDI cap be raised to at least 50 per cent.
During his meeting with German officials, Mr. Acharya said the overall impression was that there was greater interest to expand cooperation between both countries. During the 2008 Berlin Air Show, India made a splash by becoming the partner country.
Bidding for aircraft
The EADS is among six manufacturers bidding to bag the multi-billion dollar 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft that the Indian Air Force wants to acquire. On Wednesday, the Chief of the German Air Force, General Aarne Kreuzinger-Janik, vouched for the performance of the plane.
The aircraft, he said, has an accident-free record and took part in a NATO air policing task on the Russian border. He added that its multi-role capability was established and that it was a machine that could be used both in air-to-air and air-to-ground missions.
As for greater cooperation between the Air Forces of Germany and India, Mr. Kreuzinger-Janik said that while both services were not quite there yet for conducting joint exercises, moves were afoot to have a greater understanding in the fields of aviation medicine and flight safety to begin with.
