New Delhi: Indigenous defence production has increased by 60 percent in the past five years since 2019-2020, the latest data released by the Ministry of Defence has revealed.
At 16.7%, India recorded the “highest-ever growth” in the value of defence production to Rs 1,26,887 crore in FY 2023-24 from Rs 1,08,684 crore in FY 2022-2023, the Ministry of Defence has claimed in a press statement. Defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs) and other PSUs contributed to this record growth by 79.2 percent and the private sector by 20.8 percent, the statement has claimed.
In FY 2019-2020, the defence production was at Rs 79,071 crore only.
In terms of exports, the ministry claimed the soaring defence exports contributed to the growth in defence production. The value of defence exports touched a “record-high” of Rs 21,083 crore in FY 2023-24, reflecting a 32.5 percent growth from the last fiscal when it was Rs 15,920 crore.
In its statement, the ministry claimed the reasons behind the growth in defence production were “policy reforms and ease of doing business brought in by the government in the last 10 years with (a) focus on attaining self-reliance”, as well as defence exports.
The government has brought forward five successive “positive indigenisation lists” over the years to enhance the country’s defence production. The fifth positive indigenisation list, introduced in 2023, included 98 items, the fourth included 928, whereas the fifth included equipment such as sensors, weapons and ammunition.
Among other major clearances for indigenous equipment in 2021, the government approved the Indian Air Force’s Rs 48,000 crore deal with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to procure 83 Tejas fighters.
In the last few years, domestic facilities producing defence equipment have also opened up.
According to the Ministry of Defence’s 2023 Year End Review, India now exports defence products to over 85 countries. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL’s) helicopter factory came up in Tumakuru in Karnataka, initially producing Light Utility Helicopters (LUH). At its inauguration, it was announced that the factory would initially produce roughly 30 helicopters per year, subsequently 60, and then 90 per year.
After an agreement between Tata Advanced Systems Ltd and Germany’s Airbus Defence and Space, a facility to produce C-295 transport aircraft was also inaugurated in Vadodara, Gujarat, in October 2022. While 15 aircraft will come to India in a flyaway condition, 40 will be produced in India.
Moreover, India and Russia started joint manufacturing of AK-203 rifles in Uttar Pradesh, as part of an agreement inked in December 2021 for procuring more than six lakh rifles. As part of this, the Indian Army has received 35,000 initial rifles, as reported by ThePrint.
Some of the major platforms now being exported are Dornier-228, 155 mm Advanced Towed Artillery Guns (ATAGs), Brahmos missiles, Akash missile system, radars, simulators, Mine Protected Vehicles, armoured vehicles and Pinaka rockets and launchers.
Besides these items, India has also been exporting ammunition, thermal imagers, body armour, line replaceable units and parts and components of avionics and small arms.
As reported by ThePrint earlier, in April this year, India began its deliveries of BrahMos missiles and launchers to the Philippines, as part of a $374.96 million deal signed in January 2022.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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