Defence Exports Cross over Rs 21,000 Crore, Witness a Spectacular Growth of 32.5%: Rajnath Singh

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh took to social media to announce that the country’s defence exports have soared to unprecedented levels, crossing the milestone of Rs 21,000 crore for the first time in the history of Independent India.

New Delhi: In a major boost to Indian defence exports, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday announced that it has scaled to unprecedented heights and crossed the Rs 21,000 crore mark. Taking it to X, the Defence Minister informed that India’s defence exports have reached a level of Rs 21,083 crore in the financial year 2023-24, which is 32.5 per cent over the previous fiscal when the figure was Rs 15,920 crore. The recent figures indicate that the defence exports have grown by 31 times in the last 10 years as compared to FY 2013-14.

Praising the leadership of PM Modi under whose vision the Defence Ministry is taking several initiatives to spur India’s defence manufacturing and exports, Rajnath Singh said, "Our defence industries, including the private sector and DPSUs, have registered a commendable performance in the recent years. Congratulations to all stakeholders on crossing the new milestone in defence export."

A comparative data of two decades i.e; the period from 2004-05 to 2013-14 and 2014-15 to 2023-24 reveals that there has been a growth of 21 times in the defence exports. Total defence exports from 2004-05 to 2013-14 were Rs 4,312 crore, which has gone up to Rs 88,319 crore in the period from 2014-15 to 2023-24," said the Ministry of Defence.

It is pertinent to note that despite the speedy gains made by the Modi government over the last few years on the Atmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliance efforts to its military equipment, a recent report from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released last month said that India remains the world’s top arms importer.

According to the Swedish think tank SIPRI, India's "arms imports increased by 4.7 per cent between 2014–18 and 2019–23. Although Russia remained India’s main arms supplier (accounting for 36 per cent of its arms imports), this was the first five-year period since 1960–64 when deliveries from Russia (or the Soviet Union before 1991) made up less than half of India’s arms imports."