India's Defence exports witnesses 5 times growth in last 4 years

New Delhi, April 20: The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has recorded a five per cent increase over the value of export approvals secured by the MoD in just a few years according to the latest updates on the dashboard of the MoD's Department of Defence Production (DDP).

 

The dashboard was updated with the new figures on 14 April. Firstly during FY 2016-17, the value of export approvals was INR 15.2 billion. Following year i.e. FY 2017-18, it saw an increase and registered INR 46.8 billion. In FY 2018-19, which represented a 78% increase over the INR 46.8 billion which was INR 83.2 billion recorded. Now, the value of defence export approvals in FY 2019-20 was a year-on-year increase of 4%, compared with the previous year.

 

The dashboard also revealed that the mots of the defence export approvals have been secured by India’s private sector leading to a rise in it's growing strongly in recent years.

 

In FY 2019–20, India’s private sector was credited more with 93% with the other being secured by state-owned defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs) such as Tata, which co-operates with Lockheed Martin on producing structures for the US corporation's C-130J aircraft. In FY 2018–19, the private sector secured 89% of all export approvals. In FY 2017–18 and FY 2016–17 the private sector was attributed with 68% and 13% respectively.

 

This growth has also boosted PM Narendra Modi’s visionary ‘Make in India’ initiative. The establishment of ‘Make’ category for the capital acquisition in the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) has been a significant pillar behind the ‘Make in India’ initiative. It has helped to support the indigenous capabilities through design & development of required defence equipment/product/systems or upgrades/sub-systems/components/parts by both public and private sector industry/organization in a faster time frame.

 

 

1)Make-I (Government Funded): The projects under it involves government funding of 90%, released in a phased manner and based on the progress of the scheme, as per terms agreed between the MoD and the vendor.

 

2) Make-II (Industry Funded): The projects under it involves prototype development of equipment/ system/ platform or their upgrades or their subsystems/ sub-assembly/assemblies/components, primarily for import substitution/innovative solutions, for which no Government funding will be provided for prototype development purposes.

 

On the other hand, about 50 Indian companies in the private sector have contributed to defence exports. Some of the major export countries for defence products have been Italy, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Russia, France, Nepal, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Israel, Egypt, the UAE, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Poland, Spain and Chile, etc. The major defence items being exported are Personal Protective items, Offshore Patrol Vessels, ALH Helicopter, SU Avionics, Bharati Radio, Coastal Surveillance Systems, Kavach MoD II Launcher and FCS, Spares for Radar, Electronic System and Light Engineering Mechanical Parts, etc.