Washington:

China has escalated its counter-offensive against the United States by intensifying its sanctions on American defence firms. In less than a week, Beijing today announced a second round of sanctions on ten US companies. The reason – sale of arms to Taiwan.

With this, China has, in total, sanctioned or penalised 45 US entities – 17 firms and 28 entities – over varying degrees of penalties. While 17 firms have been sanctioned, 28 others have been penalised by adding them to an export ban list.

Among those sanctioned today are some of the biggest defence manufacturers globally – subsidiaries of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and General Dynamics.

In a statement issued by China’s Ministry of Commerce, all ten US firms have been added to Beijing’s “Unreliable entities list” for “participating in selling of arms to Taiwan”. It further stated that these companies will henceforth “be prohibited from all import and export activities” in the country. Neither will they be allowed to invest in China.

Their senior management has been banned from entering the country too, the Chinese government said. The latest action against US corporations come just six days after seven other companies were sanctioned in a similar manner. Among those were a subsidiary of Boeing Defense named Insitu.

Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China, is a flashpoint between Beijing and Washington. Beijing claims the entire island-nation as a part of China. Taiwan considers itself an independent nations. While China is a communist country, Taiwan is a democracy.

China has not ruled out the use of force to take over the country. Even in his New Year’s eve address to the nation, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued threat over Taiwan and cautioned anyone who tries to stop that.

China has also carried out three rounds of major military drills since Taiwan’s democratic election saw President Lai Ching-te come to power in May.

ALSO READ: XI JINPING’S THREAT AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHINA AND TAIWAN

For Washington, Taiwan is a strategic ally in Asia and United States is Taipei’s largest supplier of weapons too. Defending democracy over communism has also been a principled decision of the United States – the Cold War with Russia was entirely based on this principled stand.

Showing its commitment towards defending Taiwan, US President Joe Biden had given his nod for a $571 million defence aid to Taiwan less than a month ago.

While both China and Taiwan claim sovereignty over the island nation, Beijing has said “such actions (by US firms) interfere in China’s internal affairs, and undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

Besides the sanctions, China has also penalised 28 US entities, mostly defence companies, by adding them to its Export Control List, banning the export of dual-use items to them permanently.

General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin Corporation, and Boeing Defense, Space & Security were among those added “to safeguard national security and interests, and fulfil international obligations such as non-proliferation”, the ministry said.

(Inputs from AFP)
 

New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has applauded global defence giant Lockheed Martin’s commitment towards realising the vision of ‘Make in India, Make for the World.’

The CEO of Lockheed Martin, Jim Taiclet met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) posted on X: “CEO of @LockheedMartin, Jim Taiclet met Prime Minister @narendramodi. Lockheed Martin is a key partner in India-US Aerospace and Defence Industrial cooperation. We welcome its commitment towards realising the vision of ‘Make in India, Make for the World.”

Lockheed Martin has provided India with a range of advanced defence technologies to enhance the country’s military capabilities in areas such as aerospace, naval systems, missile defence, and strategic capabilities.

The company has set up a joint venture with Tata Advanced Systems Limited for manufacturing the C 130 J empennage in Hyderabad. The company has successfully produced and delivered more than 200 empennages, while also increasing the proportion of locally sourced components.

Lockheed Martin has also relocated its operations for the manufacture of helicopter cabins from Japan to India.

The company’s C 130 J transport aircraft form an important part of the Indian Air Force fleet.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Considering the faster adoption of drones for various applications, especially for agri, consumer-related and the Central Government’s policies for encouraging the manufacturing of unmanned areal vehicles (UAVs), India would soon become a global drone hub and serious players like Garuda Aerospace would drive this growth, said Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Founder & CEO, Garuda Aerospace in an interview.

Considering the faster adoption of drones for various applications, especially for agri, consumer-related and the Central Government’s policies for encouraging the manufacturing of unmanned areal vehicles (UAVs), India would soon become a global drone hub and serious players like Garuda Aerospace would drive this growth, said Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Founder & CEO, Garuda Aerospace in an interview.

He said India would transform into a global drone capital by 2030 given superior quality, data information security and pricing as compared to China which is now the world leader.

“This will open up export opportunities for Indian drone manufacturers. The demand for Made in India drones is significant in the global market which will in turn help Indian companies to grow faster. This sector will eventually head for consolidation and a few large companies including Garuda Aerospace will lead the sector,” he said.

Stating that the demand for drones has also increased significantly in the last few years, he said this can be attributed to several progressive policies and government schemes including loans for drones, production-linked incentive schemes and subsidies to encourage the adoption of drones for various purposes, especially for agriculture.

The company’s Drone Yatra has also helped it grow in terms of bookings of drones as a service [renting of drones on a per-hour basis] and revenues. The company which clocked revenues of ₹47 crore in the last financial year is now eyeing around ₹120 crore for this fiscal.

It has already raised US$ 22 million and recently announced cricketing personality M.S. Dhoni as its ambassador. Now the company is looking to raise around US$ 40 to 50 million next year in a pre-IPO round, he said.

Currently, the company offers 30 different types of drones across agriculture, videography, project monitoring and surveillance and over 50 different types of services and is aiming to sell at least 1 lakh drones in the next 2 years in the agriculture and consumer segment. The company, he said, has a 55% market share in the agriculture drone sector.

“We are on a mission to positively impact the lives of a billion people through training programs, services, and initiatives focused on empowering youth. As a system integrator, Garuda Aerospace is uniquely positioned with manufacturing capabilities, drones-based services and remote pilot training facilities,” the CEO said.

The company had received a dual certification from DGCA for manufacturing and training of drone pilots.

“India has around 50,000 to 60,000 registered drone pilots and the recent Drone (Amendment) Rules 2023 that allows anyone with a valid government-issued identity proof and address to enlist to become a drone pilot will further boost this number,” he said.

Garuda Aerospace has tied up with Lockheed Martin, Cognizant, and Amazon Web Services, among others to spearhead growth in India’s drone sector.

It has also entered into agreements with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., and BEML Ltd for joint manufacturing of drones to have an asset-light model for better profitability. 

Having recently been granted a subsidy under the Tamil Nadu Government’s Agricultural Mechanisation Scheme, the company believes it would revolutionise India’s agriculture ecosystem by enhancing crop productivity through use of drones.