NEW DELHI: After implementing nuanced blacklisting norms to replace the earlier indiscriminate ones, the Modi government is now working to overhaul the policy on the hiring of defence agents by foreign armament companies. A Times of India report quoting sources said that the defence ministry has already held one round of top-level discussions on the policy for "authorised Indian representatives or agents" and the role they can play in facilitating and smoothen-ing arms deals in a legitimate manner. Though the policy is yet to take a final concrete shape, the "dominant view" now emerging in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is that it should junk its regulatory role over the agents imposed through stringent guidelines issued in 2001, the Oct 4 report said. India is the world's largest arms importer, having spent $13.6 billion in just the last three years in acquiring weapons from the US, Russia, France, Israel and others. Overall, India has inked arms deals worth well over $60 billion since the 1999 Kargil conflict. But there are just a handful of legalised defence agents on the rolls of MoD.
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