View: Defence exports have witnessed a considerable uptick, even as some bottlenecks need removing
India's defence exports have witnessed a significant surge in 2023-24 with a growth of ₹21,083 crore. In fact, the last few financial years have witnessed steady and methodical increase in India's defence exports to countries including the Seychelles, the Maldives, Mauritius and Ecuador.
These y-o-y increases started primarily in 2017-18, with the trajectory of defence exports hitting ₹4,682 crore, followed by a significant jump to ₹10,745 crore, which represented an increase of an impressive 129.49% in 2018-19. Then, a dip of 15.16% in defence export performance in 2019-20 to ₹9,115 crore was induced by the pandemic. A further decrease ensued in 2020-21, due to the continuation of Covid, by 7.47% to ₹8,434 crore.
The decrease in 2019-20 and 2020-21 was not as precipitous as the surge in defence export growth in the pre-pandemic phase. In the post-pandemic phase, defence exports regained their footing with an increase to ₹12,814 crore in 2022-23, which was higher than in the pre-pandemic year of 2018-19 when exports actually experienced a significant rise.
2023-24 has witnessed a further increase, from ₹15,920 crore in 2022-23 to ₹21,083 crore, representing an increase of 32.43%. Notwithstanding the pandemic serving as a dampener, at no stage before the last decade have Indian defence exports experienced such a steep upward trajectory.
This increase is a direct result of reformist policies instituted by GoI. Three critical factors have enabled this growth:
Importantly, less imports Reduced dependence on foreign
