Hindustan Aeronautics Limited(HAL) chairman R Madhavan said the HAL was accomplished of producing the Rafale aircraft but recommended that the question of transmit of technology does not arise in the current order of just 36 aircraft.
The Congress has suspected that Narendra Modi government is importing the military aircraft from French company Dassault Aviation at a much higher price than what was being negotiated by the previous UPA government, which planned to procure 126 aircraft.
The opponent has also accused the government of ignoring the state-owned HAL while negotiating the agreement, telling that some of the aircraft could have been manufactured by it through transfer of technology.
Mr. Madhavan said the HAL was able of production when the initial discussions were on.
But the current government decided to purchase 36 aircraft independently as "it was compulsory to buy them as soon as possible", he said.
"For the 36, the question of production here does not arise," he said.
If 126 aircraft were bought, some would have been purchased outright and others produced in the country, he said.
He said the HAL was not part of the process of the current deal.
The government has discarded the Congress charge that it paid an exaggerated price, saying that the cost of a fully-loaded aircraft could not be compared with that of a basic aircraft.
The HAL chairman was in the city to address an engineers' conference.
"We need to make our students employable and skilled. We also need to increase investment in research and development," he said.
