India Clears Deal To Buy 56 C295 Transport Aircraft

The India Defence Acquisition council (DAC) on Wednesday cleared a slew of proposals including the lone bid of Airbus-Tata consortium to replace the Indian Air Force’s ageing fleet of Avro transport aircraft.
The defence ministry had set the process to replace the Avro transport aircraft in May 2013 when it invited original equipment manufacturers, including US firms Boeing and Lockheed Martin, European multinational Airbus Defence and Space and Antonov of Ukraine, to come up with their proposals.
They were required to tie up with an Indian private firm. However, only Airbus and Tata responded to the invitation. Under the current defence procurement policy, single- vendor situation is not entertained unless cleared by the DAC.
As part of the deal, 16 aircraft would be bought off-the-shelf and 40 manufactured in India.
hindustantimes