India, Feb. 13 -- Four days before the arrival of French President Emanuel Macron, the Union Government on Thursday cleared a proposal worth over '3.25 lakh crores for procuring 114 Rafale fighter jets from France. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved the acceptance of necessity (AoN) for the Rafale deal and cleared several other projects worth '3.60 lakh crores.

The DAC is the apex deal for giving the go-ahead for proposed procurements for the three services. The Cabinet Committee on Security(CCS)headed by the Prime Minister is the final authority to approve the deals. The Government-to-Government contract means that the French Government stands guarantee for fulfilling all contractual...