Value of desi defence production up 12%, crosses Rs1 lakh crore mark

NEW DELHI: The value of India's domestic defence production crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark for the first time in 2022-23, which is 12% higher than the preceding financial year, the defence ministry said on Friday.
The value of defence production currently stands at Rs 1,06,800 crore for the 2022-23 fiscal. "It will go further up once the data is received from the remaining private defence industries. The figure was Rs 95,000 crore in the 2021-22 fiscal," an MoD official said.
The government is working with defence industries and their associations to remove the challenges faced by them and promote defence production in the country, he said. "Due to a number of policy reforms aimed at the ease of doing business, industries including MSMEs and start-ups are coming forward in defence design, development and manufacturing. There is almost a 200% increase in the number of defence licenses issued to the industries in the last 7-8 years by the government," the official said.
India's export of arms and defence technologies also reached an all-time high of Rs 15,920 crore in the 2022-23 financial year, which represents a ten-fold increase since 2016-17.
It will, however, take a lot more for the government to achieve its target of a domestic turnover of Rs 1,75,000 crore in the defence and aerospace sector, including exports of Rs 35,000 crore, by 2024-25. India continues to remain in the strategically-vulnerable position of being the world's largest arms importer, accounting for 11% of the total global imports in 2018-2022.