Defence Exports From India Rising And Rising
For the FY 2019–20, private sector in India was attributed with 93% of defence export approvals in terms of value, with the remainder secured by state-owned defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs). In FY 2018–19, the private sector secured 89% of all export approvals. In FY 2017–18 and FY 2016–17 the private sector was attributed with 68% and 13% respectively.
About 50 Indian companies in the private sector have contributed to defence exports. Some of the major export destinations for defence products have been Italy, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Russia, France, Nepal, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Israel, Egypt, the UAE, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Poland, Spain and Chile, etc. The major defence items being exported are Personal Protective items, Offshore Patrol Vessels, ALH Helicopter, SU Avionics, Bharati Radio, Coastal Surveillance Systems, Kavach MoD II Launcher and FCS, Spares for Radar, Electronic System and Light Engineering Mechanical Parts, etc.
The figure published in an online ‘dashboard’ by the Ministry of Defense’s Department of Defence Production (DDP) on April 14, 2020 represents a five-fold increase over the value of export approvals secured by the MoD just a few years ago. The data shows that India registered record-high defence export approvals worth INR 86.2 billion (USD1.1 billion) in fiscal year (FY) 2019–20, which concluded at the end of March.
The dashboard, which was updated with the new figures on April 14, shows that the value of defence export approvals in FY 2019–20 was INR 8620.59 crore, a year-on-year increase of 4%, compared with the INR 8320.09 crore recorded in FY 2018–19, which represented a 78% increase over the INR 4682.36 crore in approvals registered in FY 2017–18. The value of export approvals in FY 2016–17 was INR 1521.86 crore billion.
Statistics published on the dashboard also show that the vast majority of defence export approvals have been secured by India’s private sector. They also show that the private sector’s growth in exports has increased strongly in recent years.
This represents another success story for PM Modi’s visionary ‘Make in India’ initiative. The provision of ‘Make’ category of capital acquisition in Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) is a vital pillar for realising the vision behind the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the Government, by fostering indigenous capabilities through design & development of required defence equipment/product/systems or upgrades/sub-systems/components /parts by both public and private sector industry/organization in a faster time frame. There are two subcategories in this project: Make-I (Government Funded):
Projects under ‘Make-I’ sub-category will involve Government funding of 90%, released in a phased manner and based on the progress of the scheme, as per terms agreed between the MoD and the vendor. 2) Make-II (Industry Funded): Projects under ‘Make-II’ category will involve prototype development of equipment/ system/ platform or their upgrades or their sub-systems/ sub-assembly/assemblies/components, primarily for import substitution/innovative solutions, for which no Government funding will be provided for prototype development purposes.
