 "VVIP chopper deal develops a snag")
Politically, Bofors was extremely sensitive for the Congress as Ottavio Quattrocchi -- whose name figured prominently in the kickback controversy -- was known to be a friend of party boss Sonia Gandhi. India banned middlemen in defence deals following the Bofors scandal. The VVIP helicopter deal is an important case highlighting corruption in high places.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lambasted the Congress-led government for not acting sooner over the allegations. In Italy, elections are only just over a week away and all sides are trying to make political capital from the latest in a series of corruption cases to shake the Italian business world. According to media reports, the Indian government is understood to have paid about 35% of the value of the contract (560 million euro or Rs 3,700 crore approximately).
AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Tata Sons for setting up an Indian joint venture company, which will establish a final assembly line for the 8-seat AW119Ke light helicopter in 2013, which will cater to global markets.
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According to Finmeccania's website, in 2011, the company generated 17.3 billion euro in revenue and obtained orders worth 17.4 billion euro. Finmeccanica has an order book of 46 billion euro and invests about 12% of its revenues in research and development.
Business Standard recaptures the murky deal story brick-by-brick
Govt ready for JPC probe in chopper deal
Anxious to salvage the Budget session, the government is ready to lay all options on the table, including a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), to get to the bottom of the alleged scam in the procurement of 12 AgustaWestland helicopters from Anglo-Italian company Finmeccanica. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the government was ready to discuss everything and asked the visiting UK prime minister, David Cameron, to help India probe if bribes had been paid to bag the deal.
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Ready to discuss all issues in Parliament: PM on chopper scam
Under attack from the opposition over the controversial VVIP chopper deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said he was ready to discuss the issue in Parliament during the Budget Session beginning Thursday.
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Italian court rejects India's plea for information
Italian court rejects India's plea for information
India’s efforts to access information on the helicopter scam received a setback on Saturday, with an Italian court rejecting a request for documents related to the deal, even as a two-member team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and a senior defence ministry official prepared to leave for that country tomorrow to gather evidence.
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News Analysis | Seeking evidence of wrongdoing, defence official heading for Rome
A day after the ministry of defence (MoD) stated that it had “initiated action for cancellation of contract for procurement of 12 AW101 helicopters for the use of VVIPs”, the ministry announced on Saturday that it was sending a senior official to Italy to ascertain the facts in the case
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Weekend Ruminations | TN Ninan
Let deals go through
Has anything changed since April 1987, when the first news of the Bofors pay-off scandal broke? Actually, plenty. For a start, the government’s response is dramatically different in the AgustaWestland case.
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India moves to scrap Finmeccanica deal
India moved a step closer to scrapping the deal to buy 12 AgustaWestland helicopters, with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) sending a notice to Italian defence major Finmeccanica, asking if it had violated clauses of the contract by giving bribes of Rs 300 crore.
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Finmeccanica, Agusta JVs yet to take off in India
Apart from a joint venture with the Tatas, the Italian defence and aerospace giant, Finmeccanica, at the centre of a military procurement bribery scandal in India, has six legal entities registered in this country.
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Defence ministry, MEA played 'passing the parcel'
Did one arm of the government not take any action despite knowing Finmeccanica might have violated the integrity pact it had signed with the government of India?
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The meandering conversation
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Feb 2012: MoD writes to MEA – alarmed about bribery charges against Finmeccanica in helicopter deal
Apr 2012: MoD writes to MEA again: Are the charges correct?
May 2012: MEA replies: Separation of powers between judicial an executive arm in Italian system makes it hard to get information
Jul 2012: MoD tells embassy to speak to judicial authorities in Rome
Jul 2012: MEA does as told, contacts the prosecutor’s office in Naples but gets little information
Oct 2012: MoD now gets no less than the defence secretary to write to the secretary west. Says we need information
Oct 2012: MEA says it is waiting for the Italian government to respond
Oct 2012: MoD suggests why not speak to the Brits, as one of the bribe-givers was a British national
Nov 2012: MEA says the British are waiting for the Italians to take action
Feb 2013: CEO of Finmeccanica is arrested on charges of bribery and the court names several Indians
A choppy deal
Ajai Shukla gives the inside story of the controversial AW-101 helicopter deal and finds that corruption is endemic to overseas defence deals in India
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VVIP helicopter deal comes under CBI lens
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the allegations that kickbacks were paid to Indian middlemen in the Rs 3,700-crore deal to buy 12 high-security VVIP helicopters from Anglo-Italian company, AgustaWestland. According to leaks from the Italian prosecutors, reported in the Italian media, an amount of Euro 51 million has been paid to facilitate the contract with New Delhi.
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How the deal came about
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2002-2004: NDA govt mulls buying new helicopters to ferry the President, prime minister, defence minister and home minister over short distances
2004: NDA unable to decide, as neither of the two shortlisted – Sikorsky’s S-92 Superhawks and AgustaWestland – are able to meet technical parameters. UPA comes to power.
2006: helicopter purchase revisited, with greater urgency
2008: Technical trials held; the AW101s pitted against the S-92 Superhawks. Specifications are revised after Sikorsky says trails were unfair
2009: Italian newspapers report bribes were paid by Finmeccanica via a ‘consultant’ to Indian defence ministry officials and political parties
2009: Defence minister AK Antony asks the Indian Embassy in Rome to probe the contract. Truth in media reports is not established as Govt of Italy is unable to share information
2010: Contracts signed for 12 AW-101 helicopters, to be bought for 650 euros (approximately Rs 3,700 crore); Indian Air Force rubbishes charges of bribes
2012: American-Italian citizen Guido Ralph Haschke is arrested in Switzerland but released on bail with 24 hours. Italian authorities probe Finmeccanica chairman and CEO Giuseppe Orsi’s affairs
2013: Orsi is arrested
Brajesh Mishra loosened norms that let AgustaWestland in: Tyagi
Air Chief Marshal Shashindra Pal Tyagi, the former Indian Air Force (IAF) chief who has been named by Italian investigators as a recipient of bribes in India’s Rs 3,700-crore purchase of 12 AW-101 AgustaWestland helicopters, has revealed to Business Standard it was former national security advisor Brajesh Mishra who took the crucial decision that a helicopter which could convey VIPs to helipads at 15,000 feet would meet Indian requirements.
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Edit | Dealing with defence deals
There is an element of déjà vu over the spate of allegations that bribes have been paid by an Italian company in India’s Rs 3,700-crore purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters from Anglo-Italian company AgustaWestland.
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Haschke's appointment to Emaar MGF board shrouded in mystery
Offering a board position in a real estate company to a Swiss-American brokering a controversial defence deal may sound a bit stretched. But that’s how it was for Guido Ralph Haschke, believed to have played a role in selling Italian group Finmeccanica’s helicopters to India.
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Indian tender twisted to favour Italian firm: prosecutors
Three brothers with family ties to a former head of the Indian air force helped to twist rules in a helicopter tender won by Italy's AgustaWestland, prosecutors alleged in an arrest warrant for a top Italian businessman.
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Govt finds no foul play in Finmeccanica helicopter deal
A defence ministry investigation found no foul play in the purchase of 12 helicopters from Italy's Finmeccanica unit AgustaWestland, a senior government source with direct knowledge of the matter said.
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Finmeccanica in India
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The company’s presence in India dates back more than 40 years to the early ’70s, and since then it has been providing the country with military hardware and solutions.
1971 | AgustaWestland: 41 Sea King helicopters for the Indian Navy
1980 | Selex ES : Godavari class Frigate CMS
WASS : 245 A244 lightweight torpedos
1991 | OTO Melara: 31 76/62 mm guns for the Indian Navy
1995 | Selex ES: Navigation and communication systems for main Indian avionic platforms
1998 | Selex ES : Communication systems for the Indian Navy