Govt stops Finmeccanicas participation in defence expo Rajat Pandit, NEW DELHI: Even as the defence ministry contemplates blacklisting AgustaWestland after scrapping the VVIP chopper contract, it has ousted the helicopter-manufacturers parent company Finmeccanica from the biennial military exhibition Def-Expo beginning here from February 6. Officials on Friday said the Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica had booked exhibition space at the show for its several companies to hawk their military hardware and software but its participation had now been cancelled. The MoD has a clear policy that armament companies that have been banned - there are 15 companies on the de-barred list — or have corruption cases pending against them cannot exhibit their wares at the Def-Expo, where over 455 companies are expected to participate this year. The MoD is yet to taken a decision on whether to blacklist AgustaWestland, the UK-based subsidiary of Finmeccanica, or the entire conglomerate with its different subsidiaries. Defence minister AK Antony this week said the decision will be taken only after the MoD consults the law ministry and the CBI. Finmeccanica and its companies are already involved in several ongoing defence projects in India. By one estimate, the conglomerate is also in contention for Indian military contracts worth over $6 billion, ranging from helicopters and aircraft to missiles and guns. MoD has already put on hold its own recent clearance to the long-pending Rs 1,800 crore naval project to buy 98 Black Shark heavy-weight torpedoes, manufactured by another Finmeccanica subsidiary Whitehead Alenia Sistemi Subacquel (WASS), for the Scorpene submarines, as reported earlier by TOI. The controversial Rs 3,546-crore contract for the 12 VVIP helicopters with AgustaWestland was cancelled on January 1. Antony says MoD is currently concentrating on encashing the bank guarantees provided by AgustaWestland in the deal, which total up to around 270 million euros and is roughly equivalent to the amount already paid to the company after the delivery of the first three helicopters......
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 09:16:19 +0000
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