Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Friday announced that India had achieved its highest-ever growth in defence production in 2023-24 under the Make-in-India programme.
“India has registered the highest ever growth in the value of defence production in 2023-24. The value of production has reached to (sic) Rs 126,887 crore in 2023-24 which is 16.8 per cent higher than the value of production of the previous financial year,” Rajnath said in a post on X.
The figure in 2022-23 was Rs 108,684 crore, a defence ministry statement revealed.
India, however, continues to be the world’s largest arms importer. Between 2019 and 2023, the country accounted for 9.8 per cent of the total global arms imports, according to data released by the Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
India’s arms imports during 2019-2023 were 4.7 per cent higher compared with
2014-2018.
A military veteran questioned the government’s boast.
“The defence ministry should come clean on how much India is importing its procurements under Make-in-India. If material components are imported and assembled in India, how can India become self-reliant?” he told
The Telegraph.
The ministry statement highlighted India’s defence exports.
“It may be recalled that defence exports touched a record high of Rs 21,083 crore in FY 2023-24, reflecting a growth of 32.5% over the last fiscal when the figure was Rs 15,920 crore,” it said.
India produces a raft of weapons and systems, including the Tejas light combat aircraft, various kinds of helicopters, warships, tanks, artillery guns, missiles, rockets and a range of military land vehicles.
New Delhi now exports military hardware to several countries. These include missiles, artillery guns, rockets, armoured vehicles, offshore patrol vessels, personal protective gear, a variety of radars, surveillance systems and ammunition.
Rajnath said the government was committed to developing India into a leading global defence manufacturing hub. He congratulated Indian industry — including defence PSUs, other PSUs and the private sector — for taking defence production to an all-time high.
