48 private defence projects get quick MHA approval

NEW DELHI: The home ministry has given speedy security clearances to 48 private investments in the defence sector. The spurt in the clearance follows streamlining of the security clearance mechanism in May 2015. Nod for small and medium-scale arms production was among that received MHA clearances last year to boost overall domestic manufacturing, documents reviewed by ET shows.

Though big-ticket military hardware investments are cleared by the defence ministry, corporates that received clearance include Reliance and Kalyani groups, which entered into strategic partnership with BAE Systems for production of air defence guns at the just-concluded Def-Expo.

The government expects domestic private share in defence budget to go up by 20%in four years from 5% after liberalising the FDI regime and ‘Make in India’ initiative. A senior home ministry official said the ministry has cleared around 1,200 applications annually in the last few years to promote Make in India.

MHA cleared foreign investments from US, UK, Israel, Belgium, China and Japan last year. The ministry has received around 800 new applications this year for security vetting.

MHA cleared 235 applications in civil aviation sector for chartered flights, ground handling, cargo handling and individuals to become directors of companies associated with flying business. 46 proposals allowing FDI in the country too received MHA’s security clearance.

Three applications to facilitate printing of currency notes too was allowed as well. Apart from this, 41 other proposals, including 12 from banks forwarded by the finance ministry too has got the go-ahead.

The largest share of 1,071 applications were forwarded by the I&B ministry of which 390 were cl e a red. Those cleared include 170 applications for new TV channels and 179 community radio stations.

Application from the Kalanidhi Maran group is yet to be disposed, the source said. 18 applications in the shipping sector too received security nod.