INTERNATIONAL DESK: India registered defence exports worth Rs 8,000 crore in six months of the current financial year and aims to achieve the annual export target of Rs 35,000 crore by 2025, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday.

He was speaking at the curtain raiser event of DefExpo, scheduled to be held from October 18 to 22, in Gandhinagar.

Singh said India’s defence sector registered exports worth Rs 30,000 crore after 2014 when the Narendra Modi government came to power at the Centre.

He said India is progressing speedily on the path to achieving global standards of design, development and manufacturing at the international level.

“Before 2014, we used to achieve (defence) exports of Rs 900-1,300 crore. After all these years, we have achieved exports worth more than Rs 30,000 crore to date. We can add another Rs 8,000-9,000 crore of the export target (this year),” Singh said.

“We target to achieve (annual defence) exports worth Rs 35,000 crore by the end of FY 2025. We have achieved exports worth Rs 8,000 crore in six months (of FY 2022-23),” Singh said.

Gandhinagar is set to host India’s biggest-ever defence exhibition to date – DefExpo 2022 -beginning Tuesday. This 12th edition of the event has been organised on the theme ‘Path to Pride’.

Singh said India in the last few years covered a transformational journey from a (defence) importer to an exporter. DefExpo will add pace to this journey, he added.

“India which was until a few years back considered the world’s biggest (defence) importer is now standing in the queue of 25 top exporting countries,” the defence minister said in his address.

He said more than 13,000 companies are participating in the DefExpo.

“India had achieved exports of defence items and technology worth a record Rs 13,000 crore in 2021-22, which is likely to rise to Rs 17,000 crore in 2022-23,” Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar said. (PTI)