4 DRDO labs are off US blacklist

[Sir john]

The US has upgraded the status of four Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratories in its Entity List, allowing the US companies to do business with them in transfer of critical technologies. There has been change in the status of Indian labs in what is called the Entity List. As of now, the DRDO labs have been upgraded but are not in the same bracket as Israel and Canada, however, they are on a par with European countries. This includes some NATO countries, which form six-decade-old post-second world war countries. At the bottom of the banned list are countries like Iraq and Iran. The top most are those forming the closet ring of allies with the US. Revoking the ban on technology transfer to the DRDO labs was one of the issues raised by India before President Barack Obama, during his visit to the country last month. The DRDO labs, including the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), were blacklisted by the US in the aftermath of the 1998 nuclear tests by India. “The four DRDO labs have been taken off under the category, which banned transfer of technology,†DRDO Chief Controller for Research and Development (Armament and Combat Engineering) S Sundaresh said. The four labs are now placed in another section on the list, on a par with some European nations to whom latest, critical technologies can be transferred from the US.