General Awareness Series: Prime Minister’s Recent Visit To France

Analyzing the Prime Minister’s Visit To France

With an aim to give a big push to Make in India Policy Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently visited France. The four day visit by the PM involved various dealings keeping in mind the Indian scenario. It was a major move by India to strengthen the ties with France. Lets look at some of the key features of the India France deal.

• Looking at the depleting squadrons of the Indian Airforce, PM Narendra Modi broke the ice on the Rafale Fighter Planes deal. The deal, which was hanging for the past 17 years, now got wheels and 36 Rafale planes would be included in the Indian Airforce in the coming two years. The deal aims at direct purchase so as to speed things up and negotiations can be made accordingly.
  
• It also aims at cost reduction by increasing localization, to increase the financial viability of the Jaitapur project. It also aims at transfer of technology and development of indigenous nuclear energy development industries in India.
• The Indo – French Megha Tropiques satellite was launched in 2011, from the Indian Launch vehicle, PSLV. The Memorandum of understanding (MOU) is expected to exceed by 2 more years to jointly use the data from the satellite.
• The agreement proposes cooperation in the areas of Satellite remote sensing, satellite communication, data collection and joint ventures to get data from earth observations and mars explorations missions.
• In the field of technology the understanding reached proposes to encourage technical bilateral cooperation on new and renewable energy sources by training and exchanging technical personnel, joint research and transfer of transfer of technology. It would cover solar, wind, bio energy tidal and wave sectors.
• Giving a boost to railways, the agreement aims at introducing semi high speed railways and station renovations in India, a change India desperately needs.
• To encourage tourism a letter of intent was signed which would promote bilateral tourism between the two countries.

India France relations have always been friendly and with the recent chain of events the countries have moved to a new level of friendship. France was the first country to enter into a nuclear agreement with India after a nod from the IAEA and NSG group. With the recent involvement plan to purchase Dassault Rafale from France the Indian Airforce would be strengthened and would counter the fast depleting the squadrons.

Impact of the Deal on the Make in India Campaign

With the ordering of 36 fighter planes from France, the Make in India campaign however is taking a hit. France agreed on giving 36 fighter planes but only at the cost of not sharing the technology with India. Whereas the original tender demanded to make it in HAL, the new tender only aims at getting the planes from France. To support the Make in India campaign, the government has to bring in the private players. When Rafale would need maintenance then the private companies could be used instead of HAL, which would expose them to R&D, new technology and would make them ready to cater to the maintenance needs, another benefit would be that the future maintenance needs would be speedily catered. The government needs to take the depleting strength of the Airforce seriously. With China on the rise and Pakistan recently getting 1 billion dollar equipment from America, India’s problems only seem to be increasing. Given the present circumstances, we need to take speedy decisions. A lot of time gets wasted in negotiations let alone getting the thing to India. Deadlines have to be made and we need to make sure that we meet them. We set our eyes on one thing and by the time we actually end up buying it that product is outdated. In my opinion The Make In India campaign is an excellent idea, but to strengthen the defense sector from indigenously developed weapon systems is still a dream far away. HAL needs to act more responsibly. It can’t take on forever to make products. Its only after we plan things and do whatever it takes to execute them and meet the deadlines set by us, that the campaign would be truly successful.

  

About the Author: Shekhar Tanwar is a computer science engineer who is working with a renowned MNC and is a die heart defense aspirant. Guitar is his passion and he is very firm believer of physical fitness. This article is a way to help defense aspirants to present his critical views on the topic, on the forum so that collective exchange of thoughts can take place.