MoD to procure machine guns for Army’s special forces
New Delhi: The share of “Made in India” products in defence exports has reached an all-time high, surging from Rs 686 crore in 2013-14 to nearly Rs 16,000 crore in the financial year ending March 2023, a special report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
This is a 23-fold increase in nine years and reflects India’s progress in the global defence manufacturing sector, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
More than 100 firms are exporting defence products to 85 countries, the MoD said.
Defence exports include Dornier 228 aircraft, artillery guns, Brahmos missiles, Pinaka rockets and launchers, radars, simulators, and armoured vehicles.
“With exports reaching more than 85 countries, India’s defence industry has shown its capability of design and development to the world, with 100 firms exporting defence products at present,” said a government release on Tuesday, May 30.
To give a push to defence exports, the government has taken a number of policy initiatives and brought reforms over the last nine years. Export procedures have been simplified and made industry-friendly with end-to-end online export authorisation and curtailing delays to bring in Ease of Doing Business.
Further, the self-reliant India call or ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiatives have helped the country by encouraging indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence equipment in the country, thereby reducing dependency on imports in the long run.
The release said that the expenditure on defence procurement from foreign sources has reduced from 46 per cent of overall expenditure in 2018-19 to 36.7 per cent in December 2022.
More than 100 firms are exporting defence products to 85 countries, the MoD said.
India, once known primarily as a defence equipment importer, now exports a wide range of major platforms, including aircraft like the Dornier-228, artillery guns, Brahmos Missiles, PINAKA rockets and launchers, radars, simulators, armoured vehicles. The global demand for India’s indigenous products, such as the LCA-Tejas, Light Combat Helicopters, Aircraft Carriers, and MRO activities, is also on the rise, it added.
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