The United States has officially removed the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from the US Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List.
Overall, nine Indian space and defence…
The United States has officially removed the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from the US Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List.
Overall, nine Indian space and defence organisations have seen export restrictions against them being lifted, according to a Federal Register notice published by the Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security.
The notice also confirmed that the US intends to support India’s full membership in the four multilateral export control regimes in a phased manner.
This decision comes about three months after President Barack Obama pledged to lift the sanctions on these companies during a joint press conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.
The Entity List is a list of names of foreign entities – including individuals, research institutions, government and private organisations – that are subject to specific US licence requirements for the export and transfer of specified items.
Among the Indian firms on that list were ISRO, DRDO, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), and Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), a munitions and missile systems manufacturer. The sanctions date back to 1974 and 1998 when the country carried out nuclear tests.
Back in November, President Obama explained: “We agreed to reform our controls on exports, and the United States will remove Indian organisations from the so-called ‘entity list’, which will allow greater cooperation in a range of high-tech sectors like civil space and defence. And we agreed to keep working to reduce trade barriers and resist protectionism.”
A few months ago, the Indian government had also intimated that it was in the process of seeking to further liberalise its foreign direct investment policy to enable US companies to invest in its burgeoning technology sector.
