Bengaluru: Large and Medium Industries Minister R.V. Deshpande on Thursday expressed fear that cancellation of the Rafale deal signed by the erstwhile UPA government may affect the future of Bengaluru-based defence public sector undertaking, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
Addressing a press conference here, Deshpande pointed out that the earlier deal had made HAL a partner of French-based Dassault Aviation to make Rafale aircraft in India through transfer of technology clause.
The minister alleged that the new deal signed by the Narendra Modi government was not beneficial to the HAL as the French aircraft manufacturer had now refused to transfer technology to the PSU.
“The cancellation of the old deal and entering into a deal is very unfortunate,” he said, while maintaining that the earlier deal would have resulted in much benefit for Karnataka and HAL in terms of employment generation.
“We strongly oppose the Centre’s decision as it may affect HAL’s future,” he said and urged the Centre to reconsider its decision.
Electric Vehicle capital
The minister said the state government is set to come out with an action plan to make Bengaluru the Electric Vehicle(EV) capital of India. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is scheduled to chair a meeting of all stake holders of the sector in this regard on Friday.
“We will soon have the road map for making Bengaluru the Electric Vehicle hub. The action plan would include manufacture of Electric Vehicles, boost for introduction of electric vehicles for mass transport, setting up of necessary infrastructure like charging points all over the city and other aspects,” he said.
The meeting to be chaired by Siddaramaiah would be attended by officials from various departments, civic experts and electric vehicle manufacturers. The action plan would come out with specific initiatives for implementing the recently unveiled ‘Electric vehicle and energy storage policy, 2017′ with a vision to make the State preferred investment destination for manufacturing of electric vehicles and encourage use of electric vehicles for public and private commute.
Chines EV company shows interest
Deshpande claimed that the EV policy has been well received by the industry and said, an Electric Bus manufacturing company from China has already showed keen interest to set up its unit near Bengaluru. However, the minister declined to reveal further details and said the talks are at initial stage.
State proposed action plan would unveil measures for encouraging people to shift from petrol, diesel vehicles to electric vehicles, especially in Bengaluru as they are environment friendly, Deshpande said.
The state government has approved investment proposals worth Rs20,499 crore from 347 companies from April to November this year with a employment potential for 86,750 persons, Deshpande said.
Referring to the recently held National Level Vendor Development Summit held to create collaboration opportunities for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, Deshpande said about 20 Business to Business meetings were held with companies like TATA Power, Scania, Gabriel India and others.
