Major General Rohit Gupta, SM (Retd) on Atmanirbhar Bharat: Catalysing Indian Defence Exports

The GFP Annual Defence Review 2021 ranks India as fourth in terms of its power index with a score of 0.0979 (0.0000 being perfect). In a complete dichotomy of the above, India remains the second largest #importer of defence-related products, after Saudi Arabia, impinging adversely on its #strategicindependence and realising its global economic & military powerhouse potential.

The value of #indigenousdefenceproduction for FY 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 are INR 84,643 crore (USD 10.3 billion) and INR 94,846 crore (USD 11.53 billion), respectively. Indian internal demand, by itself, cannot sustain the high cost of #researchanddevelopment of high-technology products to realise independence in production of advance equipment.

It is with this background, in 2020, the Indian Government had set a target of INR 35,000 crore (USD 5 billion) in defence sector-related export annually, within five years. This was part of the planned INR 1,75,000 crore (USD 25 billion) of defence manufacturing. Accordingly, in 2021-22, India’s defence exports showed a 54% jump, with a value of INR 12,214 crore (USD 1.63 billion), over the previous 2020-21 of INR 8,434 crore (USD 1.06 billion).

The path towards #defenceexport optimisation has been set and there have been few success stories. India, however, needs to do a lot more if we are to be counted as a serious contender in the #defenceinternationalmarket

Read more about it in my recently published article in SPs Military Yearbook.

#indianarmy#indianmilitary#indiandefenceindustry#ADGPI#defencesector#defencecapability#departmentofdefenseproduction#defencesecretary