New Delhi: Buoyed by the sale of 155 mm shells, artillery guns, small arms and other items, India’s defence exports have surged to a record high of Rs 23,622 crore in the Financial Year 2024-25. This marks a growth of Rs 2,539 crore or 12.04 percent over the defence exports figures of 2023-24, which amounted to Rs 21,083 crore.
Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) have shown a significant increase of 42.85 percent in their exports in the FY 2024-25, reflecting the growing acceptability of Indian products in the global market and the ability of the Indian defence industry to be a part of the global supply chain.
The private sector and DPSUs contributed Rs 15,233 crore and Rs 8,389 crore respectively to defence exports of FY 2024-25, whereas the corresponding figures for FY 2023-24 were Rs 15,209 crore and Rs 5,874 crore respectively.
The defence ministry in a statement said defence exports—a wide range of items from ammunition, arms, sub-systems/systems, parts and components—have been exported to around 80 countries in the just-concluded financial year.
It added that the Department of Defence Production has a dedicated portal for application and processing of export authorisation requests, and 1,762 export authorisation were issued in FY 2024-25 compared to 1,507 in the preceding financial year, registering a growth of 16.92 percent.
The total number of exporters also grew by 17.4 percent in the same period.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had in February set a target for defence exports to cross the Rs 30,000 crore-mark in FY 2025-26.
ThePrint reported last August that India’s defence exports have surged more than 30 times in the past 10 years, with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas conflict giving a fillip to more growth as several countries look at beefing up their arsenal.
The Narendra Modi government had in 2020 set an ambitious export target of Rs 35,000 crore ($5 billion) in aerospace and defence goods and services for the next five years. This was part of a plan to achieve a turnover of Rs 1.75 lakh crore ($25 billion) in defence manufacturing by 2025.
The US, Israel and Germany have emerged as the biggest importers of defence systems from India.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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