India’s defense product exports in 2021-22 stood at a record 140 billion rupees (about $1.7 billion), transmits Mint, citing a statement by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.
The Indian authorities believe that this result has been achieved thanks to the government’s policy, which aims to increase the export of military equipment to friendly foreign countries. In 2014, the country was supplying defense products for just 9 billion rupees ($110.8 million), now the target is to increase exports to more than $3 billion by 2025, the official said. minister.
According to the Republican Ministry of Defence, between 2017 and 2021, India’s defense product exports increased almost sixfold. Singh also said the country has become the fifth largest economy with a GDP of $3.5 trillion over the past 8.5 years.
“Before 2014, India was one of the fragile five,” coined the word Morgan Stanley, an investment firm. Today we have moved out of that category and joined the world’s fantastic five economies,” the minister said, predicting that by 2027, India will become the third largest economy after the United States and China. .
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policy to develop domestic Make in India production directed great difficulties in the supply of foreign weapons. As Bloomberg wrote in September, because of this, by 2026 the Indian Armed Forces will experience a critical shortage of helicopters, and by 2030 – a shortage of hundreds of fighters.
In December 2021, Russia and India signed a contract for the joint production of 600,000 AK-203 assault rifles, which will be produced at a factory in the Indian city of Korva. Last November, it was reported that India would start producing 700,000 AK-203 Kalashnikov assault rifles, and the contract, under which the country would order a large batch of weapons from Russia, was estimated at 590 millions of dollars.
