| (The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.) A report from the Comptroller and Auditor General tabled in Parliament has pointed out that the French aerospace company Dassault and European missile maker MBDA are yet to fulfill a major "offset" commitment under their deal to sell 36 Rafale aircraft to India. Offsets are clauses in large defence deals under which the vendor has to invest a percentage of the deal amount in India over a specified time period. The Rs.60,000 crore deal for 36 Rafale jets had a 50% offset clause. Thirty per cent of this offset amount was to be accounted for via a key technology transfer for the development of an indigenous engine for the Light Combat Aircraft. However, the CAG report states that this has not been confirmed yet by the companies, even a year after the offset commitment period started. As part of a series of investigative reports, The Hindu had reported in April, 2019 that the companies had been given a lot of leeway on the offset clauses. The one component of this offset deal that seems to have materialised is a joint venture with Reliance Aerostructure to manufacture commercial aircraft parts in Nagpur. The new CAG report finds that several offset clauses have met with a similar fate. Of the Rs 19,223 crore worth of offsets that foreign vendors should have delivered to India by 2018 for contracts signed since 2005, only Rs.5,457 crores have materialised. The CAG report points to the leeway that the vendors have enjoyed in the Rafale deal. It also refers to the failure of the offset clause in performing its part in defence procurement policy, which is to recoup Indian investments. These two aspects are what make this story important. | 
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