India delays defence reforms again in face of multiple pressures

Industrial reform in India, which will see competition for the first time between state-owned and private defence companies, has been further delayed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), a spokesman told Jane's on 18 December.

The MoD was initially scheduled to announce the names of the private firms that had been selected for what is known in India as 'Raksha Udyog Ratnas' (RUR) status in June 2007. Since then, however, the announcement - which will confirm the list of private companies to be granted a number of benefits that are currently only given to state-owned companies, or 'public-sector undertakings - has been delayed several times.

When Jane's asked an Indian MoD spokesman on 18 December whether the announcement would be further delayed until 2008, he replied: "Yes. The [announcement about the] RUR policy and the list of companies has been delayed further. The MoD is now working on both."

The spokesman added that he was "unable to say" when the MoD might be ready to go live with the policy.

According to a leading Indian defence industry analyst, however, the delays have been caused by a number of factors, all of which could lead to the policy being postponed for up to one year. 203 of 551 words