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Context: India’s defence imports have decreased by about 21% in the past four or five years and this has happened in a short time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while stating that the country is moving fast from being the “biggest defence importer to a big exporter”.

More on the news:

• Defence exports have increased seven times in the last eight years.
• Very recently, India had achieved defence exports worth ₹13,000 crore and of this, 70% was from the private sector,” Mr. Modi said at the Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Organisation (NIIO) seminar ‘Swavlamban’.
• In the past eight years, the government had not only increased the defence budget, but also ensured that it was utilised for the development of defence manufacturing within the country.
• PM unveiled ‘SPRINT Challenges’ aimed at the development of 75 indigenous technologies/products by the industry for induction into the Navy.
• He also witnessed the demonstration of an electric human-carrying drone, which was described as the country’s first such drone.
• 39 ships and submarines were now under construction in India and Navy was currently hand-holding 40 start-ups that were developing a range of niche technologies.
• The U.S. was a major buyer, as also nations in Southeast Asia, West Asia and Africa.

Background:

• While India’s defence imports from the U.S. have gone up significantly in recent years, Indian companies have been increasingly becoming part of the supply chains of U.S. defence companies.
• In January 2022, India signed a USD 374.96-million deal with the Philippines, its single biggest defence export order, for the supply of three batteries of shore-based anti-ship variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile.
• India has imposed a phased import ban on 310 different weapons and systems during the last two years, which helped boost export.
• Over 30 Indian defence companies have exported arms and equipment to countries like Italy, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Russia, France, Nepal, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Israel, Egypt, UAE, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Poland, Spain and Chile
• The exports include personal protective items, defence electronics systems, engineering mechanical equipment, offshore patrol vessels, advanced light helicopters, avionics suits, radio systems and radar systems.
• The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) ranked India at number 23 in the list of major arms exporters for 2015-2019.
• India has set a target of clocking defence exports worth USD 5 billion by 2024.
• Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy 2020 is envisaged as an overarching guiding document to provide a focused, structured and significant thrust to defence production capabilities of the country for self-reliance and exports.
• The DPP 2016 came out with a new category called Indian IDDM (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured).
• A strategic partnership model allows Indian companies to collaborate with foreign OEMs and get transfer of technology, get the capability to build, manufacture India and sustain those projects in India.
• There are two positive indigenization lists of 101 items and 108 items that range from platforms to weapon systems to sensors to the entire plethora of items.

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