India’s defence offset contracts to cross $10bn

New Delhi: With defence deals worth $10 billion in the pipeline, minister of state for defence MM Pallam Raju said here the country has already signed defence offsets contracts worth $3.3 billion and more.

"Offset contracts worth nearly $3.3 billion have been concluded so far and, I am told, that the total value of the offset contracts which are in the pipeline is estimated to be over nearly $10 billion," he said.

Under the defence offsets policy, foreign vendors bagging deals worth over Rs300 crore have to invest at least 30 per cent of the worth of the deal in Indian defence, civil aviation and homeland security sector. With some contracts, notably the MMRCA acquisition programme, the offset requirements are much higher, placed at 50%.

The minister was addressing a gathering on opportunities for co-development and partnership between India and Italy.

Over the last few years, India has signed some big ticket defence deals for procuring C-130J medium-lift transport aircraft, C-17 strategic heavy-lift aircraft, P8-I maritime surveillance aircraft along with advanced fighter jets such as the Russian Su-30 MKI.

It is now on the verge of a deal to procure 126 multi-role combat aircraft and a deal for the acquisition of six new conventional diesel electric submarines.