 "$2.5-bn copter deal cleared on eve of PM's US visit")
On the eve of the US visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Tuesday cleared a $2.5-billion deal for 22 Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy-lift choppers with American aviation giant Boeing.
The helicopter deal that has set the agenda for Modi's weeklong visit to the US, with a stopover in Ireland on Wednesday, will primarily focus on seeking investments into the country for his Make In India and Start-Up India efforts. During his visit, the PM will consolidate his outreach to the Indian Diaspora living in the US by addressing them at an event in San Jose on September 27 and also meet top executives of Apple, Google and other tech giants.
According to external affairs ministry sources, the PM is set to leave India Wednesday morning for Dublin. He will spend September 24 and 25 in New York, where he will attend the UN's Sustainable Development Summit and also meet top officials of 21st Century Fox, News Corp and other companies at an event hosted by Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch and CEO James Murdoch. Modi is set to spend September 26 and 27 on the West Coast. He will visit the Silicon Valley to meet Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google's Sundar Pichai. A townhall meeting with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is also scheduled. The PM will showcase 30 Indian start-ups involved in sectors like clean energy and providing financial services to the poor.
On September 28, Modi will be in New York to meet US President Barack Obama and is likely to meet some other European leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly before returning home. The PM is unlikely to address the UNGA, which External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will do either on October 2 or 3.
Swaraj is currently in the US for the India-US Strategic Dialogue. On Tuesday, she addressed the US India Business Council and sought investments in both public and private sectors. In his keynote address, US Vice President James Biden asked India to speed up the pace of economic reforms with special emphasis on ease of doing business.
He stressed the need to do more to protect intellectual property and liberalise trade with shared rules of the road.
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The only blip in an otherwise busy schedule of the Prime Minister is the possibility of some in the vibrant Patel community of the US deciding to protest the police atrocities on the Hardik Patel-led anti-reservation Patidar agitation in Gujarat. On Tuesday, the Leuva Patidar Samaj of Northern California, which has nearly a 1,000 members, issued a statement welcoming Modi to California.
The Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), predominantly Gujarati, also issued a similar statement. The outfit claims to represent 14,500 small business owners who own more than 40 per cent of all hotels in the United States amounting to over 20,000 properties, and employ over 600,000 workers.
As for the chopper deal that the CCS cleared on Tuesday, defence sources said that the deal will have an offset obligation of 30 per cent. Offset policy was first introduced as part of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), 2005, under which a foreign company has to invest back a portion of the deal into India.
The deal has been pending since 2013 because of cost negotiations. The contract will have clauses to place follow-on orders for 11 more Apaches and seven extra Chinooks. The 22 Apache AH 64D Longbow helicopters are one of the most advanced multi-role combat helicopters.
American companies have over the last decade bagged defence contracts from India worth around $10 billion, including for aircraft like P-8I maritime surveillance planes, C-130J Super Hercules and C-17 Globemaster-III in the transport category.
On Monday, Prime Minister Modi had said that his US visit will seek to "build on the substantial ground covered during my last visit to USA and President Obama's visit to India early this year."
