CAG report on RAFALE

Basics on Rafale deal

  • In April 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that India will buy 36 French-manufactured Rafale fighter jets off-the-shelf from Dassault, the French aircraft builder and integrator. The Rafale was chosen in 2012 over rival offers from the United States, Europe and Russia. The step was needed to upgrade India’s ageing fleet.
  • The original plan was that India would buy 18 off-the-shelf jets from France’s Dassault Aviation, with 108 others being assembled in India by the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited or HAL in Benguluru.
  • The present government, however, rowed back from the commitment of the last UPA government to buy 126 Rafales, saying the twin-engined planes would be too expensive and the deal fell through after nearly decade-long negotiations between India and France.
  • There were a lot of hiccups over costs of the aircraft. However, faced with the dipping number of fighters and a pressing need to upgrade the Indian Air Force, Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervened and decided to buy 36 “ready-to-fly” fighters instead of trying to acquire technology from Dassault and make it in India.
  • In January 2016, India confirmed order of 36 Rafale jets in defence deal with France and under this deal, Dassault and its main partners – engine-maker Safran and electronic systems-maker Thales – will share some technology with DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and some private sector companies and HAL under the offsets clause.
  • Finally in September 2016, India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France, dubbed as “Rafale deal”, in which India will pay about Rs. 58,000 crore or 7.8 billion Euros for 36 off-the-shelf Dassault Rafale twin-engine fighters. About 15 percent of this cost is being paid in advance. As per the deal, India will also get spares and weaponry, including the Meteor missile, considered among the most advanced in the world.
  • In November 2016, however, a political warfare over the Rafale deal began and the Congress accused the government of causing “insurmountable loss” of taxpayers’ money by signing the deal worth Rs. 58,000 crores. It also claimed that the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence Limited had been unfairly picked to be the French firm’s Indian partner. The Congress alleged that the cost of each aircraft is three times more than what the previous UPA had negotiated with France in 2012.

Findings of CAG and its relevance

Pricing
Government: The previous government base price per aircraft was Rs 737 cr. The present is Rs 670 cr. That is at least 9% less
Opposition: Price of 36 Rafale jets was 55% higher than the UPA era


Location: Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty

Image
Context Recently, US has decided to withdraw from the treaty due to several issues viz. Russia’s violation of the treaty, development and deployment of intermediate-range nuclear weapons by China etc. Russia has confirmed that the USA has decided to cancel the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed between Russian and the USA in 1987. The United States alleged that Russia is in violation of its INF Treaty obligations “not to possess, produce, or flight-test” a ground-launched cruise missile having a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers or “to possess or produce launchers of such missiles.” Russia denies that it is in violation of the agreement. On December 8, 2017, the Trump administration released a strategy to counter alleged Russian violations of the Treaty. About INF Treaty: Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty  (INF) is the cold war treaty signed between US and Russia in 1987. The INF treaty prohibits US and Russia from possessing, producing or t...
Read more

Geneva Convention 1949

Image
Why is it in news? Pakistan violated the Geneva Convention What is Geneva Conventions? The Geneva Conventions are a series of treaties on the treatment of civilians, prisoners of war (POWs) and soldiers. It is also known as the Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflicts. It was adopted in 1949. It includes four conventions, with three protocols added on since 1949. Their purpose is to provide minimum protections, standards of humane treatment, and fundamental guarantees of respect to individuals who become victims of armed conflicts. These Conventions and their Additional Protocols set out how soldiers and civilians should be treated during armed conflict. What are the four conventions? Convention I: This convention protects wounded soldiers and ensures humane treatment without discrimination based on race, colour, sex, religion or faith, birth or wealth, etc. The convention prohibits torture, assaults upon personal dignity, and execution without judgment. It also grants the ri...
Read more

BIMSTEC Summit

Image
Recent developments The Fourth BIMSTEC Summit concluded with an 18-point Kathmandu Declaration. The declaration is expected to enhance the effectiveness of BIMSTEC Secretariat by engaging it in various technical and economic activities in the region. The Kathmandu Declaration has underlined the importance of multidimensional connectivity as a key enabler to economic integration for shared prosperity of the region. The declaration also highlighted the importance of trade and investment as one of the major contributing factors for fostering economic and social development in the region. The declaration said the “fight against terrorism should target not only terrorists, terror organisations and networks but also identify and hold accountable States and non-State entities that encourage, support or finance terrorism, provide sanctuaries to terrorists and terror groups.” It asked all nations to devise a comprehensive approach which should include preventing financing of terrorists...
Read more