Chinese imports for bulletproof jackets due to price advantage; no quality concern: Niti member

Indian companies producing bulletproof jackets for the Army are importing Chinese raw material due to price advantage but there are no concerns yet about the quality of these body armours, a Niti Aayog member has said.

Niti Aayog member

V K Saraswat, who is a former DRDO chief, stressed that they can intervene only if body armours produced with Chinese material are below standard, but there are no such reports as of now.

The Prime Minster's Office (PMO) had asked Niti Aayog to prepare a roadmap for "incentivising" domestic manufacturing of lightweight body armours (bulletproof jackets). The Bureau of Indian Standards has also finalised quality norms for body armours to be used by Indian forces, according to Saraswat.

He was replying to a question about concerns over the use of Chinese raw material in the manufacturing of bulletproof jackets for Indian armed forces.

Playing down the concerns, Saraswat argued that the import of Chinese raw material is market driven and cheaper than ...