Export capacity to MSME contribution: Rajnath Singh on India's defence progress- 8 points

Rajnath Singh said that the country has exported defence items worth more than Rs 38,000 crore in the past seven years.

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New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday (December 4) presented the progress report of India’s defence sector and urged the MSMEs to invest more in the wing to strengthen the country’s defence mechanism.

Informing the citizens about India’s defence export capacity, Singh said that the country has exported defence items worth more than Rs 38,000 crore in the past seven years and hopes to become an overall net exporter soon.

Here are the key takeaways from Rajnath Singh’s speech today:

• India has exported defence items worth more than Rs 38,000 crore in the past seven years, said Singh.
• We have an estimated Rs 85,000 crore industry of aerospace and defence, said Rajnath Singh.
• The contribution of the private sector in the defence sector has increased to Rs 18,000 crore, said Singh.
• The Defence Minister urged the MSMEs to invest more in research and development as it would help strengthen the nation's security.
• "You should bring new technologies, new products. You should not think that just because of your small, you cannot do great innovation," he added.
• Around 12,000 MSMEs have joined the defence industry due to the government's initiatives, he added.
• The government aims to achieve the export target of Rs 35,000 crore by 2024-25, noted Rajnath Singh.
• India is exporting defence equipment to around 70 countries. According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute 2020 report, India is in the list of top 25 countries in defence exports," he said.

The Defence Minister was speaking at the MSME conclave of the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) on Saturday.

Singh also accepted that the big companies have a major role to play in defence manufacturing but the reality is that the work of numerous small companies is hidden behind that of big companies.

"Big defence platforms are assembled from numerous small parts and most of them are provided by the MSMEs," he noted.

(With inputs from PTI)