New Delhi, Jan 27 (Mayank Nigam) Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar held an interactive session with more than 500 Defence industries on Thursday on promoting defence exports. Industries from public and private sectors participated in the interactive session including Industry Associations and Defence Attaches from Indian Missions abroad, Defence Ministry said in a statement. The main focus of the session was to understand the challenges faced by Defence Industries and to encapsulate their suggestions for further policy reforms and actions required to enhance the Defence exports, the ministry added. During the interaction, Defence Industries highlighted their concerns and shared their suggestions for policy interventions in order to enhance Defence exports. Sanjay Jaju, Additional Secretary in the Department of Defence Production reinforced the commitment of the Government to facilitate Defence exports and ensured that all their recommendations will be addressed timely in an appropriate manner.
Dr Ajay Kumar appreciated the suggestions given by the industries and directed the Department of Defence Production to examine suggestions and come out with suitable policy reforms and actionable points which may help in improving Defence Exports. The event was organized by the Department of Defence Promotion in collaboration with Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers. India seems way behind its stated targeted defence export of Rs 35,000 crore by 2024. The KPMG report in 2020 said that Indian defence exports need to grow at 40 percent until 2024 in order to achieve the said target. Experts feel that India needs to follow best practises of the top arms exporting countries to achieve the targeted defence export. The largest arms exporter of the world, the United States, has a Bureau of Political Military affairs for defence exports. Israel too has a dedicated agency- SIBAT which is an International Defense Cooperation Directorate under the Israel’s Ministry of Defense for meeting the purpose.