Defence exports by Indian firms in 2015 up three-fold from last year

New Delhi

The first nine months of 2015 saw a more than three-fold rise in the value of defence exports by private companies, which stood at Rs 441.06 crore as against Rs 132.17 crore in all of last year.

The total value of exports undertaken by both private and state-run defence manufacturers in the first nine months of this year was Rs 695.70 crore, Minister of State for Defence, Rao Inderjit Singh, said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

The value of NOCs for export of military stores issued by the Department of Defence Production to private firms during the current year, up to September 30, is Rs 441.06 crore.

The figure stood at Rs 138.13 crore in 2012-13 and Rs 286 crore in 2013-14.

In another reply, Singh said that in the current financial year, 39 Indian private companies have obtained 49 Industrial Licenses, till October 2015, for manufacture of various defence equipments.

Further, nine proposals have been received for foreign investment in the current financial year, of which three proposals have been approved by the government.

Replying to another question, the minister said that during the last three years (2012-13 to 2014-15), contracts and Letters of Agreement (LOA) worth Rs 7,285.72 crore have been signed with vendors from the USA and the America government.

PTI