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UP firms making bullet proof jackets ditch China, say ‘no trust’: Report
Earlier this week, Niti Aayog member V K Saraswat had said that Indian companies manufacturing bullet proof jackets should avoid importing raw materials from China because of “inconsistencies in the quality” of the shipments.
Kanpur, one of the leading centres for making bullet proof jackets for Indian soldiers, has banned Chinese products, Hindustan Times’ sister publication Hindustan reported on Friday.
The companies based in Kanpur have turned towards European and American firms to procure raw materials to build body armour and jackets which save lives of soldiers, Hindustan further reported.
Earlier this week, Niti Aayog member V K Saraswat had said that Indian companies manufacturing bullet proof jackets should avoid importing raw materials from China because of “inconsistencies in the quality” of the shipments.
“Many times raw materials imported from China (to produce bullet proof jackets) are not of good quality... We should avoid importing from Chinese sources because of inconsistencies of the raw material quality,” Saraswat told news agency PTI on Monday.
Saraswat, also a former Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief, said companies producing bullet proof jackets for the army can get raw material from other sources that are the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) production agencies.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had asked Niti Aayog to prepare a road map for “incentivising” domestic manufacturing of lightweight body armours and protective gears. The Bureau of Indian Standards has also finalised quality norms for body armours to be used by Indian forces.
The clamour for boycott of Chinese goods has been growing ever since the Ladakh-face off in the Galwan Valley on June 15.
These jackets use fibre or filament which are light weight and strong. The bullet proof jackets have two layers. The upper layer is ceramic and the inner most layer is made of ballistic material.
When a bullet strikes the jacket, the ceramic layer breaks the pointed head which releases energy. This energy us absorbed by the ballistic layer keeping the soldiers safe.
The industrialists Hindustan spoke to, said American and European companies are reliable when it comes to makign such important life-saving jackets and even helmets.
“We don’t trust China, especially in a sensitive sector like defence. Therefore, we buy the raw material to make these bulleto proof jackets from Denmark and American companies,” said Mayank Shrivastava, MD, NCFD.
India lost 20 of its army personnel, including a colonel, in the violent face-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the biggest confrontation between the militaries of India and China in more than four decades.
