Modi Allows Private Sector Entry

Modi govt clears private sector entry into military transport aircraft project

NEW DELHI: Signaling the end of defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics' monopoly in the domestic aerospace arena, the Modi government on Saturday gave the formal nod for the Indian private sector to tie up with a foreign collaborator to supply 56 transport aircraft to the IAF.

TOI on Wednesday had reported that the defence acquisitions council (DAC), chaired by defence minister Arun Jaitley, would clear the proposed Rs 13,000 crore project in its meeting on Saturday.

The project had been put on hold by the previous UPA regime after the then heavy industries & public enterprises minister Praful Patel and the strong PSU lobby in October 2013 had vehemently opposed the move to virtually keep state-run units like HAL and BEML out of the mega programme.

But brushing all this aside, Jaitley on Saturday said the project, under which the selected foreign aviation company will partner with an Indian Production Agency (IPA), would help make the Indian private sector "a player" in aircraft-manufacturing and lead to "capacity-building" domestically.

The DAC, attended by the three Service chiefs, defence secretary, DRDO chief and others, on Saturday also cleared other proposals worth over s 21,000 crore. This included five fleet support ships for Navy (Rs 9,000 crore), five offshore patrol vessels (Rs 2,000 crore) and five fast patrol vessels (Rs 360 crore) for Coast Guard, all of which will be constructed in domestic shipyards.
The meeting also cleared acquisition of 32 indigenous Dhruv advanced light helicopters for the Navy and Coast Guard at a cost of Rs 7,000 crore from HAL, which will include maintenance, as well as search-and-rescue equipment worth Rs 900 crore for the armed forces.

But the clear take-away was the transport aircraft project. Under it, the first 16 aircraft will be bought from the foreign OEM (original equipment manufacturer), while the rest 40 will be manufactured by the IPA to replace the ageing Avro fleet of IAF.

The tender or RFP (request for proposal) has been issued to over 10 global aviation majors like Embraer, Lockheed Martin, Airbus, Ilyushin, Casa, Saab, Alenia Aeronautica and STE Ukraine, who have to choose their IPAs based on qualification criteria stipulated in the tender. The bid submission date has now been extended to August 28.

Indian companies like the Tatas, Reliance, Mahindra and L&T, incidentally, have long been eager to join the aviation sector. There has been some concern over the project's financial viability but MoD officials say the selected IPA could go on to manufacture the aircraft for the civil aviation sector as well after fulfilling IAF's requirement.

HAL, on its part, has an overflowing order book with several production lines in operation currently. These range from production of Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, Tejas light combat aircraft and upgrades of MiG-29s and Mirage-2000s as well as proposed ones like the almost $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project to acquire 126 Rafale jets.

Modi asks officials to minimise pendency of help request from PM's Relief Fund

New Delhi, July 19:  

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has asked officials to minimise the pendency in disposing applications for help from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.

Modi chaired a meeting with his officials to review the functioning of the fund and suggested various changes.

 

Selection of beneficiaries

Referring the Gujarat model, he directed that the selection of beneficiaries should be done in a more comprehensive, scientific and humanitarian basis, giving priority to children, poor, and cases from Government Hospitals. Life-threatening diseases should be accorded priority, and cases should be decided on need and merit.

 

He also asked for minimising the pendency in appeals for help. He said that the draw to select the cases should be conducted in a manner that does not leave out any genuine case.

It was decided that a letter from the Prime Minister should be sent to all beneficiaries. Beneficiaries, whose appeals have been approved for grant of relief, will be informed through an SMS alert.

 

The fund was set up in 1948 following an appeal by then PM Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. Initially, the focus was to assist displaced persons from Pakistan with the help of public contributions.

Now, it is being utilised to render immediate relief to the families of those killed in natural calamities like floods, cyclones and earthquakes, and to the victims of major accidents and riots. Help is also granted for medical treatment like heart surgeries, kidney transplantation, cancer treatment, etc.

 

Relief fund

The fund consists entirely of public contributions and does not get any budgetary support. The corpus of the fund is invested with banks in fixed deposits. Disbursements are made with the approval of the PM. Anybody contributing in this fund get income-tax benefit.

Anyone can apply to get relief, but the disbursement is made at the discretion of the Prime Minister, and in accordance with the Prime Minister's directions. Similarly, all applications are not accommodated keeping in view of limited resources and large number of applications.

Currently, the fund has over Rs. 2,000 crore as balance, while it provided Rs. 377 crore as relief in 2013-14 and received an income (including contribution and interest) of Rs. 297 crore.

Why PM Narendra Modi is not taking journalists on board Air India One

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a policy decision not to take journalists on board his special plane Air India One during his trips abroad – and he has his own reasons for that, whether one likes it or not.
On each of his two foreign trips thus far – to Bhutan and Brazil – Modi took just about four or five journalists, mainly from news agencies and state-controlled media like Doordarshan and All India Radio. All newspapers or news channels were kept out of his media delegation.

Modi has his own reasons for this, but we will come to that a little later. First, here is some relevant background.
Air India One has 34 business class seats for the media contingent. The norm that past prime ministers have adhered to is that all seats in the media compartment, except two, are filled up by journalists. The two remaining seats were routinely used by Special Protection Group (SPG) personnel.
The list of media personnel travelling with the PM on his foreign trips is prepared mainly by the PMO with help from the Ministry of External Affairs. The media contingent travels in the same plane as the PM. The big help that the government extends to the scribes is that it does not charge them air fare and Air India provides gratis tickets to the accompanying journalists.

The accompanying journalists are not taken abroad for the PM’s trips at the government’s expense. They have to pay for their own accommodation at the hotels selected by the MEA. The accompanying journalists cannot select their own hotels and the organizations they are working for have to shell out the lodging charges at the rates settled by the MEA. There is no scope for bargaining with the MEA-settled rates or the scribes reaching out to the designated hotels for negotiating prices.
The reason for this is that the government cannot allow a situation where a journalist, accompanying the Prime Minister, stays in a sub-standard hotel. Moreover, the hotel selected for the media contingent also houses a media center, fully equipped with enough number of computers and ISD phones, free of charge.

Technically speaking, the accompanying media has to pay for their food and drinks, though traditionally all previous prime ministers, cutting across the party lines, have ensured that the journalists get free food. Every evening during the entire length of the PM’s foreign trip the government makes sure that liquor flows freely for the tired journalists after a grueling day of work which normally extends to 12 or even 14 hours, entailing traveling to different venues of the PM’s engagement and attending briefings.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee used to space out his foreign trips in such a way that the accompanying journalists did not have to slog hard. But his successor Manmohan Singh was a workaholic and packed a 3- 4 day trip in just two days. Journalists travelling abroad with Manmohan Singh routinely worked for at least 14 hours a day.

The accompanying journalists are treated with lavish food and drinks during the air travels. But most important bonus for the media is that they get access to top officials accompanying the PM, an opportunity that they rarely get in New Delhi. These officials form a divergent mix – diplomats, bureaucrats and intelligence and security officials.

On board interactions with these officials not only generate a treasure trove of stories for the accompanying media but also provides them with a unique opportunity to forge personal bonding with them and such contacts come in handy for the future as well. The icing on the cake has been the PM’s customary on-board press conference on his return journey.
It is this part of the traditional media management by previous PMs during their trips abroad that Modi is uncomfortable with. All this has changed drastically in the past 50 days.

Modi himself gave his reasons for this at a book launch function at his official residence last month. It was a select gathering. The media reported Modi ‘s speech, his first from 7 RCR, wherein he said "If India has to compete with China, the focus should be on skill, scale and speed."

What has not been reported is an interesting conversation a senior journalist had with the Prime Minister when guests were being treated to high tea. A senior journalist walked up to Modi and asked him why he was not taking the media for his maiden foreign visit (to Bhutan) a week later and whether it was a one-off decision or a conscious policy decision. This journalist has travelled abroad with the prime ministers for scores of times.

The journalist must have been surprised to get an elaborate answer from the prime Minister. Modi not only confirmed that he had done away with the practice of taking full-strength contingent on his foreign trips. Modi said he had minutely studied the whole practice which was started by Lal Bahadur Shastri and continued by all his successors till himself.

The following is the gist of Modi’s reasons for keeping the media at bay during his foreign trips.
#1 It is a new age wherein journalists’ main requirement of news and information can be met instantaneously irrespective of where the journalists are located and they don’t have to necessarily travel with the PM for doing that.

#2 It was a flawed policy in any case as same journalists from the same big organizations were repeated over and over again. As for small newspapers, it was the proprietors who availed of such junkets.
#3 Selecting 30 journalists for PM’s trips abroad invariably displeased hundred others.
#4 If there is a major policy announcement, Modi will address a press conference at the Delhi airport after his return home.

However, it remains to be seen whether the Prime Minister takes media in full strength on his trip to the United States in September. After all, he has a to prove back home when Barack Obama rolls out a red carpet to him.
- The writer is Firstpost Consulting Editor who tweets @Kishkindha.