A five-year contract to provide comprehensive maintenance support for India's fleet of 12 C-130J Super Hercules tactical airlifter aircraft.
The Centre also overruled financial advisers' recommendations for making payments through an escrow account, an important safeguard in the absence of a sovereign or bank guarantee, The Hindu has reported.
With the arrival of the three jets, the size of the Rafale fleet has increased to 14.
'It is hard to justify $225 million a plane for an increasingly obsolete mission.' The purchase of the 36 Rafales has changed little for the IAF.
French President Francois Hollande arrived in New Delhi on Thursday on a two-day visit which is expected to include talks to finalise the purchase of Rafale fighter jets from Dassault Aviation.
Singh is leaving for Paris on a three-day visit, primarily to receive the first of 36 Rafale fighter jets
The plea also seeks details of comparative prices during UPA and NDA rule.
The ceremony to hand over the first Rafale jet will take place on October 8, the foundation day of the Indian Air Force, the sources said.
The latest avatar of the F-15 is designed to deal with the world's most potent air threats that are emerging from China.
'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.
Sanjay Bhandari, an accused arms dealer wanted in India on money laundering and tax evasion charges, is pursuing a separate legal battle of his own in France over an alleged unpaid cut from a large Indian defence contract dating back over 10 years, according to a UK media report.
On Thursday, five Rafale fighter jets touched down at Haryana's Ambala after covering a distance of nearly 7,000 km to join the IAF.
The navy is pushing hard for IAC-2 to be a 65,000-tonne, flat deck carrier that is designed and built in India, with technical and tactical consultation from the US navy -- the global masters in aircraft carrier operations.
"There is no doubt any longer that Rafale aircraft deal deserves to be examined thoroughly by a joint parliamentary committee. Congress reiterates its demand for constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee," he said, citing a newspaper report that claimed the Modi government's decision to buy 36 jets, instead of 126 planned earlier, jack up the price of each aircraft.
With the Rafale fighter deal stuck over price negotiations, can the prime minister step in and find a way out for both countries?
Some of the key fighter jet acquisitions over the years and the combat capabilities they possess that made India's airmen a force to reckon with are.
The Air Force Day is celebrated to mark the day the IAF was established in 1932. The force will celebrate its 88th anniversary this year with the annual parade at the Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad which includes air display of various aircraft.
A third batch of three more Rafale fighter jets on Wednesday landed in India from France after a non-stop flight, in a further boost to the strike capability of the Indian Air Force.
Rahul Bedi explains how 'miscellaneous' factors have posed a major hurdle in negotiating the Rafale deal.
Bharatiya Janaya Party leader Subramanian Swamy on Friday threatened to take legal recourse if government went ahead with the Rafale jet deal with France, saying there were shortcomings in the fighter aircraft.
Here's the lowdown of charges and counter-charges over the multi-dollar deal.
Reliance Industries has been eyeing the relatively closed field of defence manufacturing and homeland security for the past year or so. In fact Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani handpicked Dr Vivek Lall, a former top executive with Boeing last year to lead the company's foray into the sector
The disagreement over liability further complicates any early conclusion of the Rafale contract.
Two former union ministers have sought registration of an FIR into the fighter jet deal between India and France alleging "criminal misconduct" by high public functionaries.
The negotiations over the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets have entered the "final stages" as both India and France have managed to narrow down their differences over the pricing.
The petition by the trio came two weeks after the apex court had on October 10 asked the Centre to provide details of the decision-making process in the Rafale deal with France in a sealed cover by October 29.
A Court of Inquiry investigating the February 1 crash that killed two pilots is confronting the worrying possibility of a glitch in the flight computer that kicks in without warning, causing the aircraft to behave unpredictably.
RInfra, which is sitting on a debt of over Rs 6,000 crore, has been working towards monetising its assets to reduce debt.
With the arrival of the new batch, the number of Rafale aircraft has increased to eight. The first batch of five Rafale jets arrived in India on July 29, nearly four years after India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France to procure 36 aircraft at a cost of Rs 59,000 crore.
The defence ministry stressed that the purchase of 36 Rafales was 'strictly in accordance with the Defence Procurement Procedure in all aspects.' However, the DPP-mandated process had not been gone through when Modi announced the agreement on April 10, 2015,' observes Ajai Shukla.
Suspense continued on Tuesday over whether the issue of Rafale fighter deal, which has been stuck over cost, will figure in talks that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have with French President Francois Hollande during his visit beginning on Thursday.
Which of the two aircraft will India chose? Let's take a closer look at the two aircraft.
All the items identified for procurement from domestic defence manufacturers are used in shipbuilding. So far, the defence ministry has notified 127 items where purchase preference is given to local suppliers.
The only reason for the new deal is to give Rs 30,000 crore to industrialist Anil Ambani, the Congress chief alleged.
A high-level team from France is expected to arrive in New Delhi next month to firm up the order for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft by India.
The Raksha Mantri was unable to address media queries about how much the Modi government was paying for 36 Rafales compared to what the UPA government had negotiated.
He has termed the deal 'a case of arbitrariness'.
The four-day event, which will conclude on March 11, saw many foreign aircraft companies display their flying machines. Rediff.com's Venkata Sathish gives a preview.
Rahul targets the Modi government on Twitter, using the hashtag "BikGayaChowkidar".
