16 pacts for foreign tech tieup get OK

NEW DELHI: The government has approved 16 cases of foreign technology collaboration agreements and eight cases for grant of industrial licence.
According to an official release, the proposals were cleared by the Union minister of commerce and industry, Mr Arun Jaitley, based on the recommendations of the project approval board and licensing committee, which met on February 24.
The approved proposals include Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited’s technical collaboration agreement with US-based Belco Technologies Corporation for a flue gas desulphurisation unit at their Visakh refinery and Bharat Aluminium Company’s foreign technical collaboration agreement with Guiyang Aluminium Magnesium Design and Research Institute China for an aluminium smelter. Tamil Nadu Petro Products Limited’s technical collaboration with UOP Inter Americana Inc, US for capacity enhancement of its linear alkyl benzene (LAB) was also cleared. The eight cases approved for grant of industrial licence are in industrial machinery, textiles, steel, light engineering and defence sectors. Bharat Electronics’ proposal for the manufacture of low level transportable radars was one of the proposals cleared. Since April 2003, 169 foreign technology collaboration agreements have been approved.