Atmanirbhar boost: India clocks record growth in indigenous defence production

The feat has been achieved due to the policy reforms/initiatives and ease of doing business , the government said

In a fresh milestone for Centre's flagship Make in India initiative, the defence ministry on Friday said that India clocked its high-ever growth in indigenous defence production in FY24.

The value of defence production in India rose to a record high of Rs 1.26 lakh crore, a growth of 16.7% over the previous financial year, according to data from all Defence Public Sector undertakings (DPSUs), other PSUs manufacturing defence items and private companies.

"The Make in India programme is crossing new milestones, year after year, under the leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi," defence minister Rajnath Singh said on X.

The Make in India programme is crossing new milestones, year after year, under the leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi.

India has registered the highest ever growth in the value of defence production in 2023-24. The value of production has reached to Rs. 1,26,887 crore in… — Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) July 5, 2024

"India has registered the highest ever growth in the value of defence production in 2023-24. The value of production has reached to Rs. 1,26,887 crore in 2023-24 which is 16.8 per cent higher than the value of production of previous financial year," he added.

According to the defence ministry, the growth of homemade weapons comes on the back of successful implementation of the policies and initiatives taken by the Narendra Modi government.

"The feat has been achieved due to the policy reforms/initiatives and ease of doing business brought in by the government in the last 10 years with focus on attaining self-reliance. The indigenisation efforts have been pursued aggressively on a sustained basis, that resulted in the highest ever value of production," it said.

The data shows that of the total value of production in 2023-24, about 79.2% has been contributed by DPSUs/other PSUs and 20.8% by the private sector.

In terms of absolute value, both DPSUs/PSUs and private sector have recorded a steady growth in defence production.

The ministry further noted that a spurt in defence exports has also contributed to the growth of indigenous production.

It pointed out that defence exports touched a record high of Rs 21,083 crore in FY24, a growth of 32.5% over the previous fiscal when the figure was Rs 15,920 crore.

In the interim budget in February, the government increased the defence spending to Rs 6.21 lakh crore for 2024-25 in a modest hike of 4.72 per cent from last year's allocation of Rs 5.25 lakh crore.