Time For Plane Talk

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[<p>What is the biggest deal brewing in town? It is the race to bag the government's $10.4-billion (about Rs 48,000 crore) tender for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) to replace India's ageing fleet of MiGs. The deal is now into its last lap — it is a two-way dogfight between Germany's Eurofighter Typhoon and France's Dassault Aviation's Rafale. Six months ago, all six contenders in the bid — Eurofighter, Dassault, Boeing (F/A-18 Super Hornet), Lockheed Martin (F-16), RSK (MiG-35), and SAAB Gripen — participated at a parade at the international aerospace and defence exhibition — Aero India — in Bangalore.<br><br>The week gone by saw German Chancellor Angela Merkel make a case for the Eurofighter. Eurofighter topped Merkel's agenda for discussion when she met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this week."The Eurofighter is the best on offer. We will not exert any influence on the procurement procedures," said Merkel. Eurofighter is the product of a four-nation consortium — UK, Germany, Italy and Spain — set up in 1986. That's after France dropped out!<br><br>Incidentally, Merkel is not the only one to visit India with an ‘aircraft agenda'. This winter saw world leaders troop into Delhi to lobby for the deal: UK Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama. Now, who will win? Merkel or Sarkozy? That's a billion-dollar question.</p> <p>(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 13-06-2011)&nbsp;</p>