Strengthening Self-Reliant Defence

The Indian defence industry has been expanding rapidly in the recent past due to the requirement from within the country as well as from abroad. This surge can be attributed to the Indian government’s strategic and visionary plans to increase the domestic production of defence equipment. The government has come up with several policy changes and encouragements under the “Atmanirbhar Bharat” campaign to boost the manufacturing of indigenous products. Among them one can identify the growth of the defence budget, which may be regarded as a shift towards the further strengthening of the armed forces. This has helped in acquisition of large quantities of modern weapons and systems, which has created a healthy market for indigenous defence industries. Also, the policy on FDI in the defence sector was liberalized permitting up to 74 percent FDI through the automatic route to encourage global defence majors to establish their facilities in India directly or in collaboration with Indian partners.

The setting up of defence industrial corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu is another wise step to build a defence manufacturing ecosystem. These corridors are likely to create a lot of employment and also attract investment thus improving the general industrial fabric. Moreover, the emergence of the DPEPP 2020 also reflects the government’s intentions to enhance the production capacity and export outlook of the Indian defence industry. On the technological side, the Indian firms are also moving up to invest in research and development to manufacture modern and sophisticated defence products.

In the current issue, we introduce you to the top startups in this sector. In this issue, Industry Outlook has identified the select few companies that have done particularly well in this industry with a high level of attention to detail. We have found that these companies have gone the extra mile in proving their commitment to meet the customer needs in an integrated manner.

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