The central government is likely to announce a restructuring-cum-revival package for Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL), the largest public sector shipyard, at a cost of around Rs 830 crore (Rs 8.3 billion) in the coming Budget.
In gifting the submarine to Myanmar, India is competing with China for influence in the region.
The warships will be armed with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles which can reach targets 295 km away.
There were 35 defects that still remained to be resolved. Of these, 29 could not have been resolved during the monsoon since they required testing in absolutely calm seas. Nor is the Khanderi being commissioned with a full complement of its primary weapon, the torpedo.
INS Sindhukirti's refit took so long that many defence experts believed the vessel would never return to operational service.
The defence ministry has lost sight of what it intended to achieve -- which was to nurture private defence firms that would compete on equal terms with the 9 defence PSUs and the 41 Ordnance Factory Board factories.
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.
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