'Our production capacity ramp-up initiatives are expected to meet the critical requirements of our armed forces.'
After declining to a three-year low in FY24, the private sector investment is expected to fall further in the current financial year, India Ratings said in a research note.. The investments in the private sector are likely to plummet to below 11 per cent of the GDP in FY25, based on the trends from the latest national accounts data and company fillings, it noted.
Naval Group's announcement comes a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Paris where he is scheduled meet recently re-elected French President Emmanuel Macron.
Move over artillery gun deals stamp paper fodder and other scams! India's pinnacle of subterfuge will soon belong to a new hustle called offsets on which pliant Indian defence manufacturers are set to ride to riches. Setting the stage for this shakedown is a disinterested Ministry of Defence (MoD), which has artlessly authored a scamster's delight called the Defence Offset Procedure.
India's Navy has commissioned its new Russian-made guided missile frigate, INS Tushil, in the Russian coastal city of Kaliningrad. The ship, part of a $2.5 billion deal for four stealth frigates, is expected to significantly enhance the Indian Navy's capabilities in the Indian Ocean. The commissioning ceremony was attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, and other senior Indian officials. Singh described the commissioning as a testament to India's growing maritime strength and a milestone in its long-standing ties with Russia. The INS Tushil, an upgraded Krivak III class frigate of Project 1135.6, boasts advanced stealth features and stability characteristics, and incorporates 26% indigenous content thanks to collaboration with Indian naval specialists and Severnoye Design Bureau.
The move came against the backdrop of Turkiye backing Pakistan and its condemnation of India's strikes on terror camps in the neighbouring country and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir under Operation Sindoor.
The secretary defence production wants to make India (currently the largest importer of weaponry) one of the world's top five defence manufacturers and a global leader in artificial intelligence and cyberspace.
'India should take up defence manufacturing in a more serious manner and encourage greater private participation.'
The ministry of defence in September 2021 signed a Rs 21,935-crore contract with Airbus Defense and Space SA, Spain for supply of 56 aircraft.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday that India cannot remain dependent on other countries for its defence and that the indigenously developed Tejas was better than its foreign equivalents on several parameters and also comparatively cheaper.
Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal's scathing remarks on Indian startup ecosystem and its innovation priorities have drawn sharp reaction from the industry, with Zepto CEO Aadit Palicha putting up a strong defence citing the company's contribution to jobs, FDI and terming it a "miracle in Indian innovation".
Air Chief Marshal A P Singh and Chief of the Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi on Sunday set the tone for the grand Aero India-2025 by flying in the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas in Bengaluru at Yelahanka based Air Force Station.
A strategist and a quintessential political leader with grassroots connect, Rajnath Singh is credited with expanding the Bharatiya Janata Party's organisational network in the Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh in the 1990s and the subsequent decades.
The 12 SU-30MKI jets for the Indian Air Force would be licensed manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited at its Nashik facility and cost around Rs 13,000 crore.
Indian Defence Minister A K Antony is 'very suspicious of the private sector', leading Indian business baron Jamshyd N Godrej has said.
Nibe Space (NSPL), a subsidiary of Nibe, announced its vision to establish India's first multi-sensor, all-weather, high-revisit Earth observation satellite constellation. Aiming to strengthen India's self-reliance in the strategically crucial defence-space sector, NSPL signed memoranda of agreement with Indian and global partners, including Larsen & Toubro, Centum, AgniKul, Skyroot Aerospace, SpaceFields, SISIR Radar, CYRAN AI Solutions, and Thales Alenia Space as a technology partner.
The indigenously designed and developed Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH-Dhruv) and the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas will not be part of the upcoming Republic Day flypast in India due to the grounding of the entire fleet of ALH-Dhruv helicopters following a crash earlier this month. The grounding of the helicopters is a result of a Coast Guard ALH crash in Porbandar, Gujarat on January 5, which claimed the lives of two pilots and an aircrew diver. The decision to exclude the ALH-Dhruv and Tejas from the flypast comes as a high-level probe panel investigates the cause of the crash.
In less than two months since the announcement in March, the state has mobilised an armada of small and medium enterprises keen on making components for large equipment manufacturers.
The Indian Navy has received a replacement MQ-9B Sea Guardian drone from General Atomics after one of its leased drones crashed into the Bay of Bengal in September 2023. The new drone replaces the one lost in a "controlled ditching" due to a technical snag. The Indian Navy has also leased two MQ-9B drones from General Atomics in 2020, and India has signed a deal to procure 31 Predator drones from General Atomics for USD 4 billion. The supply of these drones will begin in January 2029. The Navy is also pushing for another indigenously-built aircraft carrier to replace INS Vikramaditya, which is expected to have a lifespan of another 10 years.
The "weaponisation" of economic activity - through tariffs and sanctions - is now a reality, with countries leveraging these tools strategically, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said at the Raisina Dialogue recently.
The defence ministry on Thursday sealed a contract to procure 118 main battle tanks Arjun for the Indian Army at a cost of Rs 7,523 crore, in a major move to boost its combat capabilities.
Modi and Biden will have a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday before holding high-level talks.
A gazette notification said employees involved in the production of defence equipment, services and operation or maintenance of any industrial establishment connected with the military as well as those employed in repair and maintenance of defence products will come under the purview of the ordinance.
The contracts for the procurement of the platforms and weapons systems were signed in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and defence secretary Giridhar Aramane, under whose guidance these deals fructified, an official readout said.
A spate of recent orders under the Indigenously Designed Developed and Manufactured (IDDM) category have led to investor focus on defence stocks. Actually, the defence index has been an outperformer for a long while with public sector undertakings (PSUs) like Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), Bharat Electronics (BEL), Bharat Dynamics (BDL), Garden Reach Shipbuilders Engineers (GRSE), Cochin Shipyard and Goa Shipyard being beneficiaries of the policy.
HAL, BEL and MDL feature on Sipri's list of the 100 largest arms producers in the world.
Here are glimpses from India's biennial military exhibition.
The ministry of defence has set a goal of $26 billion, including export of $7 billion for the industry by 2025-26 through its Defence Production Policy 2018.
India's economic growth accelerated to 8.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2023-24, mainly due to good performance by the manufacturing, mining & quarrying and construction sectors. The Indian economy recorded a growth of 8.4 per cent in the third quarter of this fiscal (October-December 2023), according to data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Thursday.
It is baffling how the PM chose the LCH as an indigenous product to celebrate on Rashtriya Raksha Samarpan Parv, even while his Cabinet holds up manufacturing clearance for 15 LCHs on the grounds that they are not Indian enough.
Recently, the government relaxed foreign direct investment (FDI) norms for the space sector by allowing 100 per cent FDI in manufacture of components, systems or sub-systems for satellites, ground segments, and user segments. It also permitted 74 per cent FDI in satellite manufacturing and operation as well as satellite data products and 49 per cent in development of launch vehicles and spaceports. Following this, stocks of related companies saw an uptick on the bourses.
Last month, Bhatt said Kalashnikov AK-203 rifles for Indian armed forces were under manufacturing and testing stage at an Indo-Russian joint venture at Korwa in Uttar Pradesh.
A broad consensus has been achieved by India and China on restoring the 'ground situation' along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) pursuant to talks, including for patrolling and grazing cattle in the traditional areas, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday.
The fuel cost will come down if rockets are launched from Kulasekarapattinam as they will have a straight trajectory and need not have to avoid Sri Lanka, which is being done by rockets flown from Sriharikota.
The defence ministry also cleared the project, to acquire 5,000 Milan 2T anti-tank guided missiles for the Army.
Bharat Electronics (BEL) reported excellent results for the January-March quarter (Q4) of FY24, which were driven by decent EBITDA margins and higher PAT as well as good revenue growth. Order inflows were also good. BEL is a major beneficiary of the policy of defence indigenisation.
In an address at the Navy Commanders' Conference, he said 'jointness' in operations will be critical in any future wars and restructuring of military commands and establishment of theatre commands is the way ahead.
India's total value of defence production breached Rs 1 trillion-mark in the fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23), up 12 per cent year-on-year (YoY). At the bourses, this has been well reflected in related-stocks from the sector as they gained considerable ground during this period. Shares of Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, MTAR Technologies, Bharat Electronics (BEL), and Bharat Dynamics (BDL) have skyrocketed up to 160 per cent in a year, as against a 14 per cent jump in the S&P BSE Sensex.
Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal on Saturday pressed for further liberalisation of the defence sector and called for corporatisation of defence factories to make the country self reliant in respect of arms and ammunition. There are 52 defence factories for manufacturing arms and ammunition in the country but most of them are running at 10 per cent capacity, he said. "We (India) can be the largest producer of arms and ammunition. "If the defence factories are corporatised it will bring in a new way of thinking," Agarwal said while addressing the inauguration of a post graduate programme for executives virtually from London.
A total of nine procurement proposals were approved by the Defence Acquisition Council headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, officials said.
