India has transitioned from being an arms importer and found a place in the list of top 25 arms exporter nations, the Economic Survey revealed on Monday.

Between 2015 and 2019, India held the distinction of being the world’s second-largest arms importer, but the narrative has changed now. Defence production has grown substantially in the country, from ₹74,054 crore in the financial year 2016-17 to ₹108,684 crore in 2022-23, boosting defence exports.

“The defence industry, including the private sector and Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), has made tremendous efforts to achieve the highest-ever defence exports,” the survey pointed out.

In addition, there has been a rise in the number of export authorisations issued to the defence exporters, it added. “From 1,414 export authorisations in FY23, the number has increased to 1,507 in FY24.”

About 100 domestic companies are exporting a wide range of defence products and equipment such as the Dornier-228 aircraft, artillery guns, BrahMos missiles, Pinaka rockets and launchers, radars, simulators, and armoured vehicles, the survey noted.

Stating that the government has taken several policy initiatives over the past 10 years to boost defence exports, the survey said export procedures have been simplified and made industry-friendly, with end-to-end online export authorisation curtailing delays and facilitating ease of doing business.

“Further, the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiatives have helped the country by encouraging indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence equipment, thereby reducing dependency on imports in the long run,” it added.

While defence exports have gone up, India continued to remain the world’s top arms importer in the period 2019-23, with imports going up by 4.7% compared with the period 2014-18, according to a report in March from the Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). India came back to the top slot in arms imports after briefly ceding space to Saudi Arabia in the past.

In the interim Budget presented in February, the total allocation for the Defence Ministry was ₹6.2 lakh crore, of which the capital allocation, for new procurements, was ₹1.72 lakh crore, 5.78% higher than the Budget Estimates of the previous year.

Note of caution

Earlier this week, sounding a note of caution on the push on Aatmanirbharta, or self-reliance, Vice-Chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF) Air Marshal A.P. Singh said that Aatmanirbharta cannot be at the cost of nation’s defence. “Nation’s defence comes first and foremost,” he said, while stating that when it comes to national defence, “there will be compulsions to deviate from their path” in case they do not get the things they need or the kind of systems and weaponry that is required to survive in today’s world.

Talking of the indigenous technological development under way he said the “rate at which we are getting our equipment at the moment is too low”.