India, Russia To Jointly Manufacture Aviation Sector Components

In what has been dubbed as a "breakthrough deal," India and Russia have agreed to set up a joint venture to produce titanium dioxide, a key component for the strategic metal used in aerospace industry.
"Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak and his Indian counterparts signed a breakthrough deal in Washington to invest the rupee portion of India's debt to the Soviet Union into a titanium dioxide production," Kommersant daily reported.
Under the agreement, rupee debt equivalent of USD 126 million would be invested to build a plant in India with the annual capacity of 40,000 tonnes of titanium dioxide within the next three years in which Russia is to hold 55 per cent equity.
Back in March 2006, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov suggested using the debt money for investment projects, an idea that President Vladimir Putin supported during his visit to India this January.
During Putin's India visit, Russian Vnesheconombank, Technochim-Holding and Indian Saraf Agencies had inked the titanium JV deal to be financed through debt rupees. Storchak told Kommersant that the project will finally transform the system of the return of the Indian debt that India estimates at USD one billion while Russia deems it to be three times as much.
16/04/07 India Defence

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Categories: Foreign Apr 2007, General Aviation Apr 2007