PAN India : IFCCI Defence & Aerospace Committee: Minutes of the Webinar

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With the ongoing health crisis in the world and in India, the  Indo-French Chamber of Commerce & Industry (IFCCI) under the aegis of the IFCCI Aerospace & Defence Committee organised a PAN-India webinar for its committee members on Tuesday, the 28th April 2020, to understand and learn from one another during this challenging time.

The session began with the chairman of the committee, Mr. Emmanuel de Roquefeuil (VP & Country Director of Thales India) welcoming the participants and setting the context of the meeting and the broader agenda for the session.

Given the current pandemic that is impacting all committee member companies in various ways, we felt it was important to get an overview of the COVID-19 situation in India, with a focus on the defence & aerospace sectors.

Mr. Rahul Gangal, Partner at Roland Berger, joining the participants from Montreal Canada, gave a comprehensive presentation on: “COVID-19 Sanitary and Economic Crisis: Impact & How To Rebound Post Crisis.”

Followed by the intervention of Mr. Pierre Dickeli, CEO at Safran India, presenting an overview and his initial comments on the DPP 2020. He proposed the following approach:

The IFCCI Defence & Aerospace Committee could prepare a paper to present to the MoD and Niti Aayog, addressing GOI objectives such as Job Creation, creation of a Defence and Aeronautic Ecosystem, Development of Technology in India but also stressing on the fact that Offset Obligations could help meet these objectives.

To recapitulate on the recommendations made for this paper could include:

• Re-introduce Offset eligibility of Civil Aviation and inland/coastal security products/programs
• Re-introduce offset eligibility of Services
• Re-introduce a multiplier of 1 for manufactured “component” 
• Period of Discharge extended by 4 to 5 years
• Increase FDI and ToT multipliers up to 10
• Consider Education and Skills as eligible avenues for discharge offset obligations
• Change the MSME qualification criteria

Furthermore, this agenda proposed a creation of a dedicated team of French and Indian companies (3 French, 3 Indian) to prepare and present the paper to the MoD and Niti Aayog. 

IFCCI along with the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the IFCCI D&A Committee will be reviewing all companies coming forward to be a part of this dedicated team.

Ms. Payal S. Kanwar, Director General of IFCCI addressed the participants and presented the actions of the chamber taken during this time of crisis (Webinars, Surveys, Advocacy Events, Launch of Business Leaders Delegations, etc.)

To conclude, Mr. Emmanuel de Roquefeuil acknowledged the participants of the webinar, in particular, the presence of the French Defence Attache in India and others.  He also thanked the proactiveness of the participants during the open discussion answering many queries that were raised.

The interactive session saw a participation of 35 business leaders from both Indian and French companies such as, Thales, Airbus, Adani, Centum, Dassault, Safran, Radiall, Motherson, Captronics, Maini Group, among others.