India exported military equipment worth Rs 21K crore, but still biggest importer

Ajay Banerjee

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New Delhi, April 1

India’s exports of military equipment for the fiscal ending March 31 stood at Rs 21,083 crore. This is an increase of 32.5 per cent over the previous fiscal, when the figure was Rs 15,920 crore. Over a 10-year period, exports have grown by 31 times, the Ministry of Defence said today.

Indigenous manufacturing of weapons

• This is an increase of 32.5% over the previous fiscal, when the figure was Rs 15,920 crore
• Over a 10-year period, exports have grown 31 times
• However, despite these numbers and and indigenous manufacturing of warships, fighter jet Tejas, nuclear submarine INS Arihant, missiles like Akash and BrahMos, New Delhi keeps on emerging as the top global importer of weapons

The defence industry, including the private sector and Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), have made efforts to achieve these figures. The private sector and the DPSUs have contributed 60 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively.

The MoD figures reveal that defence exports during the 10-year period from 2004-05 to 2013-14 were Rs 4,312 crore. In the next decade, ever since PM Modi was voted to power, the exports stood at Rs 88,319 crore.

The growth has been achieved due to the policy reforms and ‘Ease of Doing Business’ initiatives brought in by the Government, in addition to the end-to-end digital solution provided to the Indian industries for promoting defence exports. This growth is a reflection of global acceptability of Indian defence products and technologies, the MoD added.

Through a post on X, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated all stakeholders on crossing the new milestone in defence exports.

However, despite these numbers and locally making warships, fighter jet Tejas, nuclear submarine INS Arihant, missiles like Akash and BrahMos, New Delhi keeps on emerging as the top global importers of weapons.

Sweden-based Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its report on March 10 this year said India maintained its position as the world’s top arms importer. The SIPRI tracks arms sales globally and produces an annual report. India imported 9.8 per cent of all global arms between 2019-2023, it said.

“India was the world’s top arms importer, which increased by 4.7 per cent between two five years blocks – 2014-18 and 2019-23,” its latest report said.

Indian imports increased despite the government’s “Make in India” initiative, which aims to promote India as the “most preferred global manufacturing destination”.

With the Union government placing significant emphasis on Atmanirbharata (self-reliance) in military technologies, India’s arms imports have slightly decreased to 9.8 per cent of global arms sales between 2019-23, from the previous double-digit figure of 11 per cent between the five-year block of 2018-22.

“Although Russia remained India’s main arms supplier (accounting for 36 per cent of its imports), this was the first five-year period since 1960-64 when deliveries from Russia (or the Soviet Union before 1991) made up less than half of India’s arms imports,” it said. France and the US supplied 33 per cent and 13 per cent of the equipment, respectively, to India.