Russia interested in building civilian aircraft in India: Sitaraman

Russia has expressed an interest in the production of civilian aircraft, light transport aircraft and helicopters in India with Russian technology, minister of state (MoS) for commerce and industry Nirmala Sitharaman informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply on Friday.

Sitharaman was referring to the eight session of the India-Russia Forum on Trade and Investment held in New Delhi early this month.

The forum enables business-to-business (B2B) interactions among members of industry from India and Russia. This year, panel discussions were held on pharmaceutical, infrastructure and manufacturing sectors.

The Forum discussed the `Make In India' programme and possibilities of partnerships in smart cities, industrial corridors and industrial parks.

India has sought Russian cooperation in various sectors, including the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, railway wagon manufacturing, construction and mining equipment, development of National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs), production of CRGO grade steel etc. The response of the Russian side was positive.

The government, she said, has taken a number of steps to improve ease of doing business in India in recent months, including de-licensing and deregulation of large number of items under defence manufacturing, introduction of 24x7 online application filing system for industrial licenses, introduction of self-attestation and third-party audit and liberalisation of FDI Policy.