Indigenous manufacturing ready to raise the bar of value addition in defence and aviation
This fortnight's issue of Forbes India is focussed on how a heightened mix of activity by the public sector, private sector, multinational players and startups is pushing the ambitious Aatmanirbhar Bharat targets—hit a turnover of $25 billion from aerospace and defence goods and services by 2025, with exports accounting for $5 billion, or roughly Rs41,000 crore
Between 2018 and 2022, India has been the world’s largest arms importer, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) Trends in International Arms Transfers 2022 report. SIPRI is an independent international research institute focussed on conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. India is ahead of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Australia and China, in that order. The United States, Russia, France, China and Germany have been the five largest arms exporters. India accounts for 11 percent of global arms imports, with Russia (45 percent), France (29 percent) and the US (11 percent) being the main suppliers.
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It’s against this backdrop that the government’s decision to make defence and aerospace a focus area, as part of the larger Self-Reliant India (Aatmanirbhar Bharat) initiative, assumes significance. The plan is to encourage indigenous manufacturing and along with it the required research and development.
The targets are ambitious: Hit a turnover of $25 billion from aerospace and defence goods and services by 2025, with exports accounting for $5 billion, or roughly ₹41,000 crore. Defence exports stood at nearly ₹16,000 crore in FY23, as per government data, an all-time high.
Traditionally, the big investors in India included global giants like Airbus, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Rafael; the public sector players relied on them for procuring strategic equipment and materials. Defence was opened up to the private sector in the early 2000s, but it’s only of late that a clutch of players—traditional and startups—has begun raising the bar of value addition.
This fortnight’s issue of Forbes India is focussed on how a heightened mix of activity by public sector, private sector, multinational players and startups is resulting in frenetic activity in defence and aerospace.
