Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], May 27 (ANI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Tuesday said that the state government would not allow the shifting of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) production units out of Bengaluru. He was reacting to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu's proposal to relocate HAL's advanced production facilities to his state.

'I don't want to comment on whatever they demand. I want Parliament members and Central ministers to react to this, but as the government, we will not allow anything to be shifted. We will give land if they want to expand,' Shivakumar told reporters here.

'They can get any new thing if they want, we will not come in their way, but as far as Karnataka is concerned, HAL is our pride, Nehruji gave this to us,' he added.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday approved the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) Programme Execution Model, a key step to boost India's indigenous defence capabilities and strengthen the domestic aerospace industry, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in an official statement.

According to the MoD's statement, in a significant push towards enhancing India's indigenous defence capabilities and fostering a robust domestic aerospace industrial ecosystem, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) Programme Execution Model.

The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) is set to execute the programme through industry partnership.

The Execution Model approach provides equal opportunities to both the private and public sectors on a competitive basis. They can bid either independently or as a joint venture, or as consortia. The entity/bidder should be an Indian company compliant with the laws and regulations of the country, the statement said.

This is an important step towards harnessing the indigenous expertise, capability and capacity to develop the AMCA prototype, which will be a major milestone towards Aatmanirbharta in the aerospace sector.

ADA will shortly issue an Expression of Interest (EoI) for the AMCA Development Phase, the statement added. (ANI)