By Aritra Banerjee
The financial assistance provided by the Government of India (GoI) to Troop Comforts Limited (TCL) during the Financial Year 2021-22 and FY 2022-23 following the corporatisation of the erstwhile Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) is slated to be ₹550.64 crores. This will be for liabilities prior to corporatisation and includes ₹250 crores for cantonment service charges.
The production process of the newly designed digital combat uniform involves three key stages: wet processing (chemical refining of fabric), dyeing (application of colour/shades), and printing (of design). The final stage, garmenting, consists of creating the finished apparel product.
To ensure accountability and prevent unauthorised replication, the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for the Digital Camouflage Pattern have been obtained and included as a qualifying criterion in the Request for Proposal (RFP). The procurement process was carried out through an Open Tender Enquiry (OTE), and bidders, including TCL, were granted ample time to comply with the tender conditions before the bid was opened.
This information was disclosed by Minister of State for Defence and Ajay Bhatt in response to a query from Binoy Viswam in the Rajya Sabha today.
TCL is an Indian state-owned defence company headquartered in Kanpur, India, established in 2021 as part of the restructuring and corporatisation of the OFB into seven different Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
