Reliance Defence, promoted by Anil Ambani's Reliance Infrastructure, has partnered with German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall AG to produce ammunition in Maharashtra's Ratanagiri. As part of the agreement, Reliance Defence will supply the explosives and propellants for medium and large caliber ammunition to Rheinmetall.
Reliance Defence and Germany-based Rheinmetall have agreed on a 'strategic partnership' in the field of ammunition, officials on Thursday said.
Reliance Defence Limited and Russia's leading developer and manufacturer of Air Defence Missile Systems 'AlmazAntey' have decided to work jointly on the entire range of Air Defence Missile and Radar Systems that are required for Indian defence forces.
Anil said the company is in the process of signing a contract with the Indian Coast Guard for the first defence order for 14 fast patrol vessels
Defence Ministry says the report is being verified, maintaining that neither Indian nor French government had any say in the decision.
The Seventh Fleet's area of responsibility includes the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean and at any given time there are roughly 5070 ships and submarines, 140 aircraft and approximately 20,000 sailors under its command.
The prime minister must clear his stand on the Rafale deal after Hollande's remarks, he said.
French government said French companies have the full freedom to select Indian firms for the deal.
The BJP said the email purportedly by an Airbus executive referred to a helicopter deal and not Rafale.
The plea said that Gandhi's statements had hurt the sentiments of prime minister's supporters.
The Group has decided to withdraw the Rs 5,000-crore civil defamation suits against Congress leaders and National Herald newspaper over their statements and an article on the controversial Rafale fighter jet deal.
An internal document shows Dassault Aviation considered Reliance offset deal as a 'trade off' to clinch Rafale deal'.
The group said Dassault choose Reliance Defence Ltd to meet its 'offset' or export obligation in the contract and the Ministry of Defence has no role in the selection of Indian partners by the foreign vendors.
Surjewala said shocking revelations have brought out lies of Sitharaman about the award of Rs 30,000 crore 'defence offset contract' to Reliance Defence as part of this deal.
Prasad alleged there was pressure for extraneous considerations and 'bribe' for not finalising the Rafale deal during the UPA rule.
Clearly, he is in the right place, at the right time.
It also has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operational service.
The BJP alleged that former French president Francois Hollande is part of the "nexus" to sabotage the procurement.
'Rahul is only making a pathetic public spectacle of his lack of judgment and good sense by hallucinating that somehow, the Congress, or whatever political combine is cobbled together, will displace the BJP at the coming Lok Sabha election by constantly harping on the Rafale deal,' argues retired civil servant B S Raghavan.
Hollande said only Dassault can comment on whether India had put pressure on Reliance and Dassault to work together.
The sources said the IAF has briefed the defence ministry about the incident and that the Indian mission in Paris has been in touch with French authorities.
Reaching out to present and former employees of the defence PSU at an interaction with them, Gandhi said, work done by HAL for the country was tremendous and the country owed debt to it for "protecting us" and creating a scientific vision.
Macron, who assumed the presidency in May 2017, emphasised that this is a government-to-government discussion and "this contract is part of a broader framework which is military and defence" coalition between India and France.
"A global settlement was reached between the French tax authorities and Reliance Flag, a telecom company, in a tax dispute pertaining to the period 2008-2012," the French embassy said in a statement.
RM took stock of progress in production of the fighter jets whose delivery to India will begin in September next year.
He accused Jaitley of having the ability to spin "two truths or lies" with "fake self-righteousness" and "indignation to defend the indefensible".
'So far there is no clear money trail nor an indisputable smoking gun.' 'But that doesn't mean there aren't disturbing questions and a strange resistance by the government to reveal the price, which only adds suspicion to concern,' observes Karan Thapar.
"The PM defended his personal RAFALE bypass deal on 2 counts: 1. Better Price 2. Faster Delivery. Both have been demolished by the revelations in the Hindu today," he tweeted.
"I answer all your questions, whatever you ask me. Why don't you question Prime Minister Modi on the Rafale deal, on Amit Shah's son. Why don't you question the prime minister who changed the entire Rafale deal to help a businessman?" he asked.
French observers point out that Paris had no choice but to issue a denial given the importance of India's Rafale purchase for France's aerospace industry.
A large Dhruv order could significantly boost Indian defence exports. These have grown from Rs 1,940 crore in 2014-2015 to Rs 10,745 crore in 2018-2019.
Here is an explainer and a timeline relating to India's purchase of 36 combat jets.
The Congress chief also described Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's 3-day trip to France as part of a 'huge cover-up' by the government.
Meanwhile, Congress president Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at the Modi government and Anil Ambani over the Rafale issue, saying that in order to bag India's biggest defence contracts one has to be a "defaulter of Rs 45,000 crore" and have "no relevant experience".
Pointing out at the 'cooperation' and 'trust' shared between both India and France, Ambassador of France to India Alexandre Ziegler asked people to look at the facts.
Which were the five businesses Ratan Tata had great hopes for, but his successor failed to deliver?
The opposition does not have any issue left so it is raking up Rafale deal issue, Rajnath Singh said.
Though the government says public and private shipyards compete on equal terms, public shipyards feast at the high table with the defence ministry, with only scraps being tossed to private shipbuilders.
The success of Anil Ambani's ambitious defence plan will depend partly on whether he can persuade government officials and international partners that he can build sophisticated equipment and partly on whether the PM can get India's notoriously slow procurement process to work, say Paritosh Bansal, Sanjeev Miglani and Promit Mukherjee.
MoD dismissed the report saying it draws 'conjectural connection between tax exemption to a private company and procurement of Rafale jets'.
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