The US publication points out that the controversial Rafale deal by the French company with India has played a significant role in turning around Dassault’s fortunes but that has cost the Indian company heavily in terms of its finances, but still India’s top defence manufacturer HAL ranks higher than Dassault in terms of defence revenue and overall presence in the global defence market in 2017.

As per the survey, among the world’s top 100 defence companies in 2018, HAL ranks 38 while Dassault Aviation ranks 44. But the French company’s previous position was 51 and it could improve its position with the help of big orders from India while HAL ranking went down to 38 from 35 for the same reason .A foreign company was allowed to come out of crisis by the Modi Government by landing the country’s own blue chip company into a financial crisis by helping an inexperienced private company with offset partnership instead of the public sector HAL with decades of experience.

The US publication based the rankings on defence revenue that is sales, that supports military, intelligence and aspects of homeland security. HAL’s defence revenue in 2017 was UD$ 2720 million- a fall of 8 per cent from the defence revenue in 2016 which was US$ 2518.60 million. The HAL’s total revenue in 2017 was US$2830 million of which whopping 96 per cent came from defence. So that way, the HAL is principally a defence manufacturing company.

As against HAL, Dassault’s defence revenue for 2017 was US$ 2124 million and this was up by 57 per cent from the figure of 2016 due to major contribution by the Modi government. In 2016, Modi government placed the order for 36 rafale jets in fly away condition for Rs. 58,000 crore and that gave a big boost to the fortunes of the crisis ridden Dassault in 2017.Egypt and Quatar also placed some orders on Dassault and all together, the French Company revived its financial viability in 2017.

Modi government’s anxiety to help Dassault is evident from the fact that the Indian defence ministry has already paid Dassault about Rs. 20,000 crore in three installments since 2016 for the Rafale order whereas the Indian Air Force has not yet paid cash striven HAL Rs. 14,000 crore till now for the work that has already been done by the HAL.That way, not only the HAL has been deprived of the offset orders by the Modi Government for the Rafale jets, the Dassault has been granted much higher prices compared to the original understanding and the payments have also been facilitated on fast track to help the French company in distress ignoring the financial distress of its own blue chip company.

The information emanating from the HAL management sources gives firm indication that the this premier defence manufacturing firm of the country is facing serious financial viability problem as the Modi government is starving it of orders which are scheduled as per the defence modernization programme of the Government. Though the defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman has claimed in Parliament that the defence ministry has organized about Rs one lakh orders to HAL during the debate and challenged the Congress President Rahul Gandhi on his statement that the HAL is suffering for lack of orders from the Government, the facts are that only Rs. 26,000 crore of orders are confirmed and the remaining Rs. 74,000 crore are at different stages of evaluation in the Technical Evaluation Committee of which , only a small portion of these orders materialize. So that way, the defence minister has given a distorted picture of the order position with the HAL and this is confirmed by the reliable sources in the HAL as also defence experts.

Thus the Government is playing hide and seek policy with the premier public sector company HAL and in the process, the BJP leaders have done immense harm to the image of the HAL in the global market and also the high standing of the public sector companies in India. At a time when the defence minister herself says in public that the HAL is not competent to build Rafale jets, what more harm can be done by its foreign competitors? The irreparable damage that has been caused to the future of HAL by the Modi regime, has no parallel.(IPA Service)