NEW DELHI — The Indian navy on April 4 formally commissioned a Russian-built Akula-II-class submarine into its fleet. The submarine — originally the K-152 Nerpa and now renamed INS Chakra-II — is on a 10-year lease from Russia at a cost of nearly $1 billion. This is part of India’s growing effort to modernize its naval forces. INS Chakra is the first nuclear-powered submarine to be operated by the navy in almost two decades.

NEW DELHI — India’s engineering and construction conglomerate Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (L&T) signed an agreement with French defense products company Nexter Systems March 30 to collaborate on the Indian army’s key artillery gun programs. Under the deal, Nexter Systems will transfer technology for its 155mm 52-caliber Towed Gun System and Mounted Gun System to Larsen. The two companies will work together on subsystem manufacturing, integration and support. Larsen also plans to assemble Nexter’s Caesar and Trajan guns in India.

NEW DELHI — India has revised its defense offsets policy to allow foreign vendors to use technology transfers to fulfill their offset obligations for Indian defense contracts.