VISAKHAPATNAM: In February 2013, Italian prosecutors arrested Giuseppe Orsi, the chief executive of Italian defence multinational, Finmeccanica on suspicion of paying bribes to facilitate the sale of VIP helicopters to India. Since then, the ministry of defence (MoD) has been in a quandary about whether to blacklist Finmeccanica and all its subsidiaries, or only AgustaWestland, the subsidiary that built and sold the AW-101 helicopters to India.
Blacklisting all Finmeccanica companies – which include marine specialist, WASS; radar and communications specialist Selex Electronics Systems; aerospace giant, Alenia Aeromacchi; and armaments major, Otomelara – would undermine Indian tenders, in which they are important players
