India’s annual defence exports to touch Rs 35,000 crore by 2024, says Rajnath Singh
Singh also said he has no doubt about India emerging as among the three major economies of the world by 2030 and the defence industries will have an important role to play.
By IAR Desk
Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday projected that the annual Indian defence exports will touch Rs 35,000 crore by 2024 from the current level of Rs 17,000 crore. Singh also said he has no doubt about India emerging as among the three major economies of the world by 2030 andthe defence industries will have an important role to play.
“India’s defence export is growing. In the last two years our export has been Rs 17,000 crore but keeping in view your (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) capacity in the successive years, I can say that by 2024 Rs 35,000 crore. I am confident about it,” the Press Trust of India quoted the Defence Minister as saying. He was attending the Karnataka ‘Rajyotsava’ event organised at the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. in Bangalore.
The minister told the gathering that India can not remain dependent on imports for long and the Indian companies,especially defence public sector units, will have to play amajor pro-active role in achieving the goal of ‘Make In India’as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We don’t want to see India as an importing nation. Instead, based on your strength, I can say that India is sure to become an exporting nation. Nobody can stop her,” Singh said.
In this regard, he hailed the HAL for being among those Defence public sector units, whose performance in operations and finances was excellent. “By March 2019, the company’s turnover was Rs 19,705 crore and the HAL gave shareholders 198 per cent healthy dividend,” he said.
In its recent report on global arms transfers the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) for the first time named India as an arms exporter. The report also noted that India had significantly reduced arms imports – almost by 32 per cent – since 2015. While India still remains the world’s second biggest arms importer, the latest data reflects the increasing success of the governement’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. India’s major arms importers were Myanmar (46%), Sri Lanka (25%), and Mauritius (14%).
