Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) annual session 2019. PTIDefence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday underlined the importance of the domestic defence industry, calling it a prominent sector under the Make in India initiative which will contribute to India’s growth toward becoming a $10 trillion economy by the year 2030.
Speaking at the annual session of the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers, Singh said that its theme of ‘Make in India: Marching Towards $26 billion Defence Industry by 2025’ reflected “the aspiration and vision of our government for the defence industry in the country”.
“The current size of the Indian economy is around $2.7 trillion and our goal is to make it to $5 trillion by 2024 and subsequently, to $10 trillion by 2030,” he said. “Amongst several sectors of the economy which are set to contribute to this growth, defence has been identified as one of the most prominent sectors under the ‘Make in India’ initiative.”
For the defence industry to reach that level, he said, the production has to grow by nearly 15 per cent year on year.
Singh said the defence sector “has huge implications for India’s endeavours to promote R&D (research and development), innovation and its efforts to secure a place in global supply chains” and will have “enormous spin-off benefits for the economy in general”.
The minister said the defence industry recorded a production of nearly Rs 80,000 crore in 2018- 2019, adding that the private sector contributed Rs 16,000 crore, but even in the production activities of defence public sector and OFB, 40 per cent of the production activities were being outsourced to private players.
He said the government’s envisaged Defence Production Policy has “clearly spelled out our goal to achieve a turnover of $26 billion in aerospace and defence goods and services by 2025, involving an additional investment of nearly $10 billion and creating employment for nearly 2-3 million people”.
