A senior official in the Ministry of Defence said that exports of defense materials, such as equipment, are expected to more than double by 2024-25, from Rs 15,920 crore in the year that ended in March 2023 to Rs 35,000 crore.
“Our goal is to increase exports to Rs 35,000 crore in the next two years,” T Natarajan, Additional Secretary of the Department of Defense Production, said on Tuesday at an event put on by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Natarajan said that government policies have helped defense exports grow by about 10 times in the last seven years.
During the financial year 2016-17, the sum of all defense exports was Rs 1,521 crore. In 2017-18, it went up to Rs 4,682 crore, and in 2018-19, it went up even more, to Rs 10,745 crore. But over the next two years, the number of defense exports went down.
Exports picked up again in 2021-22, going from Rs 8,434 crore in 2020-21, which was a bad year because of the Covid-19 outbreak, to Rs 12,814 crore. In the financial year 2022–2023, India’s defense exports hit a new record high of Rs 15,920 crore.
Natarajan said that the private sector, especially micro, small, and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs), are becoming more important in the country’s defense industry and exports.
“In the past, we relied heavily on imports of different kinds of defense weapons for a number of reasons. Maybe we still didn’t have enough technology to meet our needs,” said Natarajan, adding that India has become an important player in the defense export market.
India sells airplanes like the Dornier-228 as well as artillery guns, Brahmos missiles, PINAKA rockets and launchers, radars, simulators, armoured vehicles, and PINAKA rockets and launchers. India’s own goods, like the LCA-Tejas, Light Combat Helicopters, Aircraft Carriers, and MRO activities, are also becoming more popular on the world market.
India sent defense equipment to 85 countries during the financial year 2022-23, according to data provided by the Ministry of Defense last month.
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