India aims to double defence productions to $22 billion by 2025

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By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, October 20: Amid the fast changing world order and a frenzied arms race, India is stepping up the accelerator to double the defence productions in three years, with eyes on the exports market. India is eyeing a large defence market in Africa, East Asia and Central Asia as countries are racing to look for alternatives to China and Russia.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is apparently spurring the countries across the world to enhance their defence spendings, and also look for reliable and economical defence goods. While the Russian arms and ammunitions have come under serious questions following Ukrainian successes in chasing way the invading army, there is a growing interest in the Indian defence capabilities among a large number of countries.

“The government has set a target to increase defence production in India from $12 billion to $22 billion by 2025,” said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday at the DefenceExpo2022, which has seen participation of the representatives of 75 countries.

To scale up the productions of the defence goods, Singh called upon the US to share technology with India as part of the ‘Invest in India’ programme. Singh invited investment from domestic industry and Foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Singh hailed the achievements of the Indian Defence industry, saying that they have demonstrated capabilities by building Fighter Aircraft, Aircraft Carrier, Main Battle Tanks and Attack Helicopters and gained experience to build an ecosystem through these projects.

“To increase the participation of domestic industry in the defence sector, the government has reserved 68 per cent of the defence capital acquisition for domestic procurement for the year 2022-23, which is approximately Rs 85,000 crores and 25 per cent of this has been reserved for domestic private industry,” said the minister.

Singh also invited the US companies to set up manufacturing units in India and develop technology collaborations with Indian industries to create a global supply chain free from vulnerabilities and uncertainties.

“The path to ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ is a comprehensive set of policy frameworks that seeks to build indigenous technological and production capacity & capability with cooperation, participation and collaborations with reputed institutions and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) from friendly nations. The idea is to manufacture in India for the Indian market as well as export to the friendly countries, i.e., ‘Make in India, Make for the World’,” remarked Singh. He added that $5 billion export target set for 2025 reflects the intent of the Government for export-oriented manufacturing.

Singh described the project agreement to co-develop Air-Launched UAVs, under the auspices of the India-US Defence Technology and Trade Initiative, as a welcome development. He stated that industries from both sides can explore additional DTTI projects, such as a counter unmanned aerial systems and an Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance platform.