India’s defence exports increase by 700% in two years, ranks 19th among world’s defence exporters

The central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has had the long-standing ambition of making India one of the leading exporter of defence equipment and as per latest information, the Centre has indeed lived up to its promise on that front.

Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat on Wednesday said that India is currently ranked 19th in the list of top defence exporters in the world, as of 2019 data.

“We witnessed a staggering 700% growth in defence exports from Rs 1521 crores in 2016-17 to Rs 10,745 crores in 2018-19…an all-time high ranking of 19th in the list of defence exporters in 2019,” CDS Rawat said during an e-symposium on ‘Catalysing Defence Exports’ via video conferencing.

In order to boost PM Modi’s clarion call for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, the Union Ministry of Defence in August formulated a draft Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy 2020 as an overarching guiding document to provide a focused, structured and significant thrust to defence production capabilities of the country for self-reliance and exports.

“The policy aims to achieve a turnover of Rs 1,75,000 crores, including export of Rs 35,000 crores, in aerospace and defence goods and services by 2025,” the

Defence Ministry said in a statement on August 3. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had in August announced a major policy decision about the imposition of a phase-wise ban on the import of 101 military weapons systems and platforms in order to promote the domestic defence industry.

“We cannot depend on foreign governments, foreign suppliers and foreign defence products to meet our defence needs. It is not compatible with the objectives and feelings of a strong and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’,” he had said back then.