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India and France on Friday unveiled ambitious defence industrial roadmap to co-develop critical military hardware, firmed up a space situational awareness programme even as the Tata Group and Airbus announced to jointly build H125 helicopters following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron. Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra, announcing the outcomes of Thursday's Modi-Macron talks in Jaipur, said a scheme for exchange of professionals in the age bracket of 18 to 35 years and activation of Schengen visas with a five-year validity for Indian postgraduate alumni alumni of French institutions were among other key decisions. The two sides inked a total of nine agreements that would provide for cooperation in a large number of areas including defence-space partnership, satellite launches boosting engagement in the healthcare sector and scientific research. The pacts inclucded the defence industrial roadmap and the Tata-Airbus deal. The two sides also
There is no proposal to establish any new defence industrial corridor in the country, Parliament was informed on Friday. Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said this in written response to a query in the Lok Sabha. The government, in its budget for 2018-19, announced setting up of two defence industrial corridors (DICs) to develop a holistic defence manufacturing ecosystem in the country, he said. One corridor has been established in Uttar Pradesh with six nodes, namely Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi, Kanpur, Chitrakoot and Lucknow. The second is in Tamil Nadu with five nodes, namely Chennai, Hosur, Coimbatore, Salem and Tiruchirappalli, he said. "As per the information received from the government of Uttar Pradesh, 108 Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) have been signed with industry/organisation having potential investment of Rs 12,191 crore. Investment of Rs 2,445 crore has already taken place in Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC)," he said. Further, as per informa