India’s Elections – Good News for Israeli Industry

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

The victory of India’s opposition Bharatiya Janata in the general elections may start a new era for Israeli defense and homeland security industries.

All the observers say that the election that is bringing Narendra Modi into the prime minister’s office will have important implications beyond India’s borders in terms of foreign policy, foreign investment and, the country’s stance towards religious extremism.

India, with a population of 1.2 billion, is among the four big developing countries — Brazil, Russia, and China are in the smae category. Modi promised economic revival, and that means that his victory will put him in a position where he will have to deliver — and fast.

Experts say that the election results worsen sectarian tensions between India’s majority Hindus and its 138 million Muslims. The United States refused to issue him a diplomatic visa in 2005. Britain cut ties after three of its citizens were killed in the riots. But over the last two years all that slowly changed as Modi relentlessly campaigned on a platform of economic revival.

India has been a big market for the Israel defence industries and mainly Israel aerospace industries (IAI). That brought the company to establish Nova, a company owned by it and TATA one of the major Indian industries.

Nova was formed in 2009, by IAI and Tata Advanced Systems (TASL) for the development, manufacturing, marketing and support of defence products in India. According to the agreement, Nova focuses its efforts on UAS , missiles, radars and electronic warfare (EW) systems .

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

TASL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Industries focused on providing integrated solutions for Defence and Aerospace.

Since NOVA was formed, it is working in two facilities, In Mumbai and Hyderabad. Recently a decision was made to expand the operations to enable the company to bid more easily for new tenders to be issued by the Indian ministry of defense. One is for mini UAS. The sales potential for the Israeli aerospace industries in India is described by defence sources as “huge”.

The Indian navy has become the client for one very advanced system that is being developed by IAI .India has invested in the development of that advanced missile , dubbed Barak-8. This is defending the navy’s ships from different threats and is part of a vast net centric “super system” that will collect real time intelligence enabling the navy to perform better against land and sea targets.

As part of that plan, the Indian navy has a requirement for additional types of uas made by IAI. Sources say that the Indians have already evaluated some additional systems. These may include improved Heron and even the Heron-TP uas medium altitude long endurance (MALE) with dedicated maritime payloads.

The two currently operational Indian uas squadrons have increased the demand for uas in the Indian navy’s different sections and in recent months there are indications about some new contracts planned with IAI.

The Indian ministry of defence is accelerating the selection process of two types of unmanned air systems (UAS) that are to be purchased under an urgent acquisition requirement for operation by the Indian army northern command along the India- Pakistan border.

The new government may see in Israel a good source for systems that are used to counter terrorism. All the signs are that the U.S will also try to take advantage of the new political environment in India.