Defence Export

• According to Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh India’s arms exports have surpassed Rs 21,000 crore for the first time.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

• India has been expanding its exports of a wide variety of weapons, from BrahMos cruise missiles to artillery guns, in an effort to become self-reliant in the sector.
• The country has taken a significant step forward in becoming ‘Aatmanirbhar’ or self-reliant in defence exports. The defence minister stated on April 1st that the arms exports reached Rs 21,083 crore in the financial year 2023-24, an impressive growth of 5% compared to the previous fiscal year. In the financial year 2022-23, India’s defence exports were nearly Rs 16,000 crore.
• This development comes as part of New Delhi’s push to boost defence exports under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India has set an ambitious target of taking annual defence exports to Rs 35,000 crore by 2024-25.

INDIA’S SUPPLIES TO ARMS:

• India supplies arms to more than 85 countries, including Italy, the Maldives, Russia, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Egypt, Israel, Spain, Chile, and others.
• India’s defense exports have seen significant growth in recent years, from Rs 686 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 21,083 crore in 2023-24.
• Around 100 firms are exporting defence products in India and the Centre allocated Rs 6.21 lakh crore to the defence budget for 2024-25, a 4.3% increase from Rs 5.94 lakh crore allocated in the previous fiscal year.
• Despite India’s “aatmanirbharta” push, it remains the world’s largest arms importer, accounting for 8% of all arms imports, according to the Swedish think-tank, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The rise in India’s arms imports has been driven by tensions with Pakistan and China.
• While Russia remains India’s primary supplier of arms, its share of Indian arms imports has decreased from 76% in 2009-13 to 36% in 2019-23. The report said that India is now looking to Western suppliers, “most notably France and the US,” and “its own arms industry” to meet its military requirements.
• The report also revealed that arms imports by Pakistan jumped 43% between 2014-18 and 2019-23, accounting for 4.3% of the world total. Pakistan was the fifth-largest arms importer globally.
• The other countries in SIPRI’s top five weapons list for 2019-23, Iran and Iran, were Saudi Arabia (second), Qatar (third) and Japanese (fourth).