BDL breaks into top arms-makers list in 2017

Defence equipment maker Bharat Dynamics Limited broke into the top-100 list of global arms producer with sales of $880 million in 2017. A report from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI), which tracks arms trade around the world, revealed BDL was ranked 94th on the list along with three other defence PSUs: Ordnance Factory Board at 37, Hindustan Aeronautics at 38 and Bharat Electronics at 64. Notably, HAL and OFB have been among the top-50 companies since 2002, while BEL jumped 10 places from 74 to 64 in the list. 

According to the report, India is now the largest arms producer alongside Brazil and Turkey in emerging producers category. These companies’ combined arms sales of $7.5 billion in 2017 was 6.1 per cent higher than in 2016. Bharat Electronics’ alone managed to increase its sales by 12 per cent in the said year.

Notwithstanding their growth, the total volume of Indian arms sales remains less than two per cent of the global market — an indication of India’s poor export performance at the international arena. While the government has claimed to have taken multiple policy initiatives to kick-start defence manufacturing in the private sector in a big way, much of these measures remain only on paper.

“There was a marginal decrease in Hindustan Aeronautics’ total arms sales, while the totals of the other three companies each rose by approximately 10 per cent,” says the report. All these four companies are almost entirely dependent on domestic demand. The overall increase in arms sales is a result of India’s aims to modernise its armed forces and source its military equipment from domestic companies as much as possible.