India’s defence exports reach all-time high of Rs 15,920 crore in 2022-23

New Delhi: India’s defence exports have reached an all-time high of Rs 15,920 crore in financial year 2022-2023, a whopping 10-fold rise since 2016-17.

The country’s defence exports in 2021-22 were Rs 12,814 crore, Rs 8,434 crore in 2020-21, Rs 9,115 crore in 2019-20, and Rs 10,745 crore in 2018-19, Rs 4,682 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 1,521 crore in 2016-17, official data revealed.

Calling it “a clear manifestation of India’s talent and the enthusiasm towards ‘Make in India’, PM Modi tweeted: “Excellent! A clear manifestation of India’s talent and the enthusiasm towards ‘Make in India.’ It also shows the reforms in this sector over the last few years are delivering good results. Our Government will keep supporting efforts to make India a defence production hub.”

Describing the rise as a remarkable achievement, Union Defence minister Rajnath Singh said that “our defence exports will continue to grow exponentially, under the inspiring leadership of PM Modi.”

The value of India’s defence export has increased tenfold since FY 2016-17.

While delivering the Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw Memorial Lecture a few days ago, the Defence minister had claimed “Indian defence exports would touch an all-time high of Rs 35,000–40,000 crore by 2026.” He had also said that for the first time, of the products procured by the defence sector, 80 per cent were indigenised.

The Defence ministry’s target is to raise India’s annual defence exports to $5 billion by 2024-25. Towards this, the Defence ministry has brought in several new policies, such as earmarking 75 per cent of its defence capital budget for 2023-24 towards procurements from domestic sources and three positive indigenisation lists of 3,738 items, for which there would an embargo on import beyond timelines specified against them.

“Aatmanirbharata” (self-reliance) in the defence sector, has been a major policy initiative of PM Modi. During the DefExpo in October 2022 in Gandhinagar, Modi had said: “Today the world is trusting India’s technology because the defence forces of the country have proved the abilities of these products.”

But, according to a recent report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India remained the world’s largest arms importer from 2018 to 2022. “With an 11 percent share of total global arms imports, India was the world’s biggest importer of major arms in 2018–22, a position it has held for the period 1993–2022,” it said.