India has recently approved the mass production of AK-203 rifles with Russia

• The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has granted permission for mass production of AK-203 rifles, providing fire power to the standard weapon profile of armed forces.
• DAC has also approved an independent satellite for Indian Air Force (IAF).
• This decision was taken ahead of scheduled visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India beginning. His visit will start from December 5.
• This deal was put on hold since 2018.
• The DAC meeting was chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
• During the meeting, Minister granted permission to manufacture 7.5 lakh AK-203 assault rifles for IAF, under ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Contract for AK-203 assault rifles

• Contract was signed at over Rs 5,000 crore.
• It will lead to manufacturing of 6,014,427 AK-203s for a period of 10-years.

Inter-governmental Agreement (IGA)

• IGA was signed in February 2019.
• Under this agreement, first 70,000 rifles will include Russian components as technology transfers.