India’s defence manufacturing to grow 16.8 per cent in FY24: Rajnath Singh

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday announced that India’s defence manufacturing sector has witnessed a growth of 16.8 per cent in the financial year 2023-24. This remarkable growth marks the highest ever increase in the country’s defence production value.

Singh said the total value of defence production this year reached Rs 1,26,887 crore, which is higher than last year’s figures.

In a post on X, the Defence Minister said, “Under the leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi, the Make in India programme is crossing new milestones year after year. India has recorded the highest ever growth in the value of defence production in 2023-24. The value of production in 2023-24 has reached Rs 1,26,887 crore, which is 16.8% higher than the value of production of the previous financial year.”

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the Make in India programme is crossing new milestones year after year. @narendramodi,

India has recorded the highest ever increase in the value of defence production in 2023-24. The value of production has reached Rs 1,26,887 crore in 2023-24.

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) July 5, 2024

Singh also congratulated the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and the private sector for contributing to this achievement and reaffirmed the Government’s commitment under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to develop India as a leading global defence manufacturing hub.

The Minister said, “Many congratulations to our industry including DPSUs, other public sector companies and private industry manufacturing defence equipment. The Government is committed to creating a more favourable environment to develop India as a leading global defence manufacturing hub.”

The Central Government has set a target of achieving indigenous defence manufacturing worth Rs 1,75,000 crore including defence exports worth Rs 35,000 crore by FY 2024-25.

Notably, many global companies have shared or expressed a desire to share critical defence and aerospace knowledge with India. Several policy reforms have been implemented to achieve the objective of ease of doing business, including integrating micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and startups into the supply chain.

India’s defence exports are set to reach a record Rs 21,083 crore (about USD 2.63 billion) in FY 2023-24, registering a growth of 32.5 per cent over the previous fiscal, when the figure stood at Rs 15,920 crore.

These latest figures show that defence exports have increased 31 times in the last decade compared to 2013-14.

Following the announcement of these production numbers, shares of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited rose over 1.5 per cent to Rs 5,601 on Friday. Over the past few years, Indian defence PSUs have seen significant returns on equity, benefiting from new orders.