In the last decade, India’s defence exports have shown an unprecedented twenty-three-fold increase reaching a high of nearly Rs. 16,000 Crore in Financial Year 2022-23 from only Rs. 686 Crore in Financial Year 2013-14. As per a Ministry of Defence official statement of March 31, 2023, over 100 Indian firms currently export defence products to over 85 countries. The SPRINT initiative of the Indian Navy just added over 100 products which are export-ready to this list.
The large number of reforms and bold policy changes including simplification of export procedures, end-to-end online export authorization and a multitude of other initiatives have certainly helped in bringing about ‘Ease of Doing Business’.
The need now is to take the thrust of defence exports to the next level if the articulated aim of USD 5 billion in exports by 2025 (as stated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inauguration of Aero India 2023) is to be achieved. This will require a ‘whole of government’ approach and all stakeholders will need to come together.
The Armed Forces themselves are the biggest stakeholders as far as defence equipment is concerned. Though it may be argued that boosting export is not the primary task of warfighters, there is no denying that it would be difficult to export unless the products have first been developed, trial evaluated and preferably even inducted.
View of a Former Indian Navy Commander
“The Navy possibly has been the most proactive amongst the three Services and can help bring about a major change in this sector.
Speaking at the maiden ‘Swavlamban’ seminar of the Naval Innovation and Indigenization (NIIO) in July 2022, the Prime Minister had remarked that the users need to embrace Indian equipment for exports to happen. If you do not love and respect your own child, he asked, can you really expect others to do so?
Earlier this month the second edition of the Swavlamban seminar concluded in New Delhi. And, what has been achieved by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the NIIO in the intervening period through the well-publicized SPRINT initiative is nothing short of remarkable,’’ says Cdr Rahul Verma (Retd).
Development of a number of niche products in this short time span is a major boost to the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiatives.
According to Cdr Verma, “Over a hundred new IDDM (Indigenous Design, Development and Manufacture) products have been added to the portfolio available for export. Even if each of them gets export orders worth a very modest Rs 6 Crores on an average, the export value will equal the total defence exports of the country just a few years back. Given that some of these products are stated to be game changers, a much higher quantum of exports is expected. It would not be an exaggeration to say that USD 1 billion in exports can – and should – be the more realistic target. Carbon nanotube-based fabrics, ionic pulse jet metal cutters, firefighting bots, gun inspection systems, swarm drones (surface as well as underwater), heavy lift drones and a multitude of sensors et cetera all have a very large and waiting market. Their extremely low cost makes them all the more lucrative. Quite a few of the products including electric OutBoard Motors (OBMs) for boats, and medical innovations quite obviously have dual-utility and will find many takers in the civil market as well.”
It is understood that much like the last edition of Swavalamban, the Navy this year too invited the Defence Attaches from friendly foreign countries to attend the seminar. Each firm was given a QR code which could be scanned by the attendees and links to the e-brochures of the firms so that these could easily be downloaded.
In his view this may have been a very simple thing, but has been missing from most of our defence expositions till now. It could possibly now be made the new normal. Small things like these show the level of attention to detail which has gone into Swavlamban. For defence exports to grow, the outreach has to be effective.
“The other ministries should now step in. Actions by all ministries could possibly be centrally coordinated. One hopes that the actions to be taken in this regard were discussed in detail during the Swavlamban seminar itself or in another appropriate forum so that a focused plan can be formulated,’’ he suggests
“The role of the private sector will only grow in the future. The Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) is collaborating with the Navy in this event. They should, perhaps, also take the lead in formulating an action plan. This action plan should be brief, focused and implementable. The need is to be result oriented much like the SPRINT initiative has been.”
Indigenous Design, Development and Manufacture of defence equipment has been accelerated by the NIIO working in collaboration with the iDEX programme of the MoD. “The Navy had, in fact, set up a dedicated cell for technology acceleration. Known as the Technology Development Acceleration Cell (TDAC) and working under the NIIO, this cell has lived up to its name as far as accelerating technology development goes. It is now up to the government to accelerate it further and facilitate exports of these products,” Cdr Verma adds.
