India’s defence exports crossed ₹21,000 crore, approximately $2.63 billion, for the first time, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced on April 1. The recent figures indicated that the defence exports have grown by 31 times in the past 10 years as compared to FY 2013-14, the Ministry said.
However, India continued to be the world’s largest arms importer for the period 2019-23 with imports going up by 4.7% compared to the 2014-18 period, according to recent data by the Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
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“Delighted to inform everyone that the Indian defence exports have scaled to unprecedented heights and crossed ₹21000 crore mark for the first time in the history of Independent India!,” Mr. Singh said on X. “India’s defence exports have reached to the level of ₹21,083 Crore in the financial year 2023-24 which is a spectacular growth of 32.5% over the previous fiscal.”
Stating that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, the Defence Ministry had taken several initiatives to spur India’s defence manufacturing and exports, Mr. Singh said, “Our defence industries including the Private Sector and Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSU) have registered a commendable performance in the recent years. Congratulations to all stakeholders on crossing the new milestone in defence exports.”
The private sector and the DPSUs had contributed about 60% and 40%, respectively, the Ministry said in a statement. In addition, there was a rise in the number of export authorisations issued to the defence exporters during FY 2023-24, the statement said; this increased from 1,414 in FY 2022-23 to 1,507 in FY 2023-24.
“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 during 2004-05 to 2013-14 were ₹4,312 crore, which has gone up to ₹88,319 crore in the period from 2014-15 to 2023-24,” the Ministry said, adding that this growth was a reflection of global acceptability of Indian defence products and technologies.
