New Delhi: The value of indigenous defense production in the last three Financial Years stood at Rs. 79,071 crores in 2019, Rs. 84,643 crores in 2020, and Rs. 94,846 crores in 2021, the government said in Lok Sabha on Friday. This information was shared via a written reply by MoS Defense, Ajay Bhatt while replying to a question from Uttar Pradesh BJP MP Sanjay Seth asking about the value of indigenous defense production in the country during the last three years.
To a question on the details of additional employment provided during the said period, MoS noted that the "Ministry of Defence does not maintain data for employment generation."
On whether the Government proposes to set up defense parks in the country in coming years, Bhatt replied that "In order to give boost to the defense manufacturing ecosystem in the country, the Government of India has established two Defense Industrial Corridors (DICs), one in Uttar Pradesh and other in Tamil Nadu. 06(six) nodes viz. Agra, Aligarh, Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Kanpur and Lucknow have been identified for developing Uttar Pradesh Defense Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) and 05 (five) nodes viz. Chennai, Hosur, Coimbatore, Salem and Tiruchirappalli have been identified for developing Tamil Nadu Defense Industrial Corridor (TNDIC)."
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"At present, there is no proposal to set up another Defense Industrial Corridor in the country.", he further added. Similarly, to a separate question from BJP MP Ajay Nishad asking for the estimated area of defense land under MoD, Bhatt said "The estimated area of defense land under Ministry of Defense is 18.11 lakh acres."
Providing further details over this via statistics, the MoS noted that Rajasthan tops the list with 8,27,062 km of area under Defense, followed by 2,36,468 km in Madhya Pradesh, 1,56,546 in Maharashtra, 1,25,662 km in Uttar Pradesh, followed by others. As per information provided in the written reply, out of the total 18,11,113 km, 13,96,267 km comes under the Army, followed by 1,46,672 km under the Air Force, 68,783 km under Directorate of Ordinance (DOO) and Defense Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) and others.
"The total area of defense land acquired by the Ministry after Independence including transfer of land from State Governments and other Central Government Ministries/Departments etc. is 13.85 lakh acres", MoS replied to a question on the total area of defense land acquired by the Ministry after the independence of the country.
Meanwhile, reports back in October, 2022 suggested that India looks to earn Rs 35,000 crores through the sale of weapons in the next two years. The projected sales include the Brahmos missile, worth USD 375 million, with a likely buyer in The Philippines. The government is also said to be in talks with Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia for new orders, which itself is expected to raise Brahmos Aerospace Company, a joint venture, USD 5 billion by 2025. Currently, there are 25 countries where 50 Indian defense export companies sell their goods and systems.
