India’s defence production has crossed ₹1 lakh crore for the first time in FY23, a jump of more than 12 per cent over FY22. The exceptional performance showed consistent efforts of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) towards aatmanirbharta or self-reliance is paying off well for both public sector undertaking as well as private industry, believe ministry officials.

The defence production value currently stands ₹1,06,800 crore and it will go further up once the data is received from the remaining private defence industries, said MoD on Friday. The latest figure of defence production in FY23 is a rise of more than 12 per cent over FY22, when it was ₹95,000 crore, the ministry stated.

Appreciating the performance, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted, “MoD is actively working with stakeholders to removing the challenges facing the industry and given them solutions.”

MoD’s policy reforms

The ministry observed that the financial growth is an outcome of a number of policy reforms have been taken to achieve the objective of ease of doing business, including the integration of MSMEs and start-ups into the supply chain.

Also read: Defence Ministry releases 4th positive Positive Indigenisation List of 928 items

Due to these policies, the industries, including MSMEs and start-ups, are forthcoming in defence design, development, and manufacturing. There is almost a 200 per cent increase in the number of defence licenses issued to industries in the last 7-8 years by the government. These measures have given a boost to the defence industrial manufacturing ecosystem in the country and generated tremendous employment opportunities, the ministry remarked.

Budgetary allocation

To give fillip to self-reliance, government allocated a record 75 per cent, which is approximately ₹1 lakh crore, of the defence capital procurement budget for domestic industry in the current financial year, up from 68 per cent in FY23.

The defence budget for FY24 has been pegged at ₹5,93,537.64 crore, which is 13.18 per cent of the total budget of the India.

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