Key cabinet decisions: IAF to procure 56 MW transport aircraft and more

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Wednesday announced the procurement of 56 C-295 MW transport aircraft for the air force.

Sixteen planes will be delivered in flyaway condition from Spain within 48 months of signing of the contract; the remaining 40 will be made in India by TATA Consortium within 10 years.

This is the first time that a private company will make military aircraft in India. “All 56 aircraft will be installed with indigenous electronic warfare suite,” a government statement said.

The programme is expected to generate 600 highly skilled jobs directly, more than 3,000 indirect jobs and an additional 3,000 medium skill employment opportunities.

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Separately the Cabinet also made announcements regarding textiles and sugarcane industries. It approved production-linked incentive (PLI) for the textile sector with a budgetary outlay of ₹10,683 crore.

The scheme is for man-made fibre (MMF) apparel, MMF fabrics and 10 segments/products of technical textiles. It will encourage investment in fresh capacities in these segments.

The scheme will result in a fresh investment of more than ₹19,000 crore. It will also benefit an additional production turnover of more than ₹3 lakh crore in the next five years.

The Cabinet also sanctioned ₹5 per quintal hike in fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane for the next marketing year.

The FRP of ₹290 per quintal is the highest farmers have ever got and is likely to benefit 5 crore growers and 5 lakh workers employed in sugar mills, Union minister Piyush Goyal said after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

Last year, the FRP was increased by ₹10 and fixed at ₹285 per quintal.

The sugarcane crushing season begins in October every year and the revised rates are declared in September.

The Centre claims the revised FRP will give growers 50 per cent above their cost. A statement said the cost of production of sugarcane for 2021-22 sugar season is ₹155 per quintal, and the new FRP at a recovery rate of 10 per cent is higher by 87.1 per cent over production cost, thus giving farmers a return of more than 50 per cent over their cost.

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FRP is the minimum price that sugar factory owners have to pay the farmers. It is directly connected to basic recovery rate of sugar. Recovery of more than 10 per cent fetches higher FRP. So, when the recovery increases beyond 10 per cent, then on every 0.1 per cent rise, additional ₹2.90 is paid per quintal. “Even if a farmer has less than 9.5 per cent recovery, their FRP will be ₹275 per quintal, said Goyal.

Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana have their own sugarcane price called ‘state advisory prices’ (SAPs), which is usually higher than the Centre’s FRP.

India-Portugal Agreement

The Cabinet also approved the signing of an agreement between India and Portugal on the recruitment of Indian citizens to work in the European country.

“The agreement will set an institutional mechanism for partnership and cooperation between India and Portugal on sending and accepting Indian workers,” an official statement said.