The Indian government has removed Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1) and Rafael from the list of companies with which deals are barred, Indian news websites have reported. An Indian court accepted the view of the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which looked into the criminal suspicions against the two companies. RELATED ARTICLES India places IAI, Rafael on restricted procurements list Rafael CEO looks to salvage $850m Indian missile deal IAI loses out to Raytheon on Indian ISTAR deal IAI delivers first LRSAM missile to Indian navy IAI and Rafael fell under suspicion in the Barak missiles affair in October 2006, when they supplied missiles to the Indian navy. The bribery case against them was closed for lack of evidence in 2013, but an Indian court approved the order closing the case only in January 2017. The companies are only now being removed from the blacklist, due to India's bureaucratic maze. Despite IAI and Rafael being on the blacklist, they continued to conduct deals with the Indian government. For example, in April 2017, IAI signed an agreement with the Indian government for the sale of Barak 8 missiles for over $2 billion. However, being on the blacklist made agreeing these deals far more difficult. Indian companies seeking to make deals with Rafael and IAI had to obtain special permission, which caused many delays. Being removed from the blacklist will make it easier to close deals in the future. Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 8, 2018 © Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018
