Army Chief Bipin Rawat: 'India's Defence is export-oriented industry'

The Army Chief Bipin Rawat on Friday said the Indian defence industry is becoming export-oriented and the defence exports would also grow to Rs 35,000 crore in the next five years. The Army Chief was speaking at an event on Indigenous Defence Equipment Exporters Association.

'Defence export expected to grow'

"We are manufacturing weapons and equipment not just to arm our defence forces but we are now gradually becoming an export-oriented defence industry and our defence export which currently range in the region of just about Rs 11, 000 crores annually is set to grow to approximately Rs 35,000 crores by the year 2024," Army Chief Bipin Rawat said.

Further asserting the importance of quality weapons, the Army Chief also said that the empowerment of soldiers comes with good weapons. The Army Chief further said that India is one of the leading armed forces of the world. He also stated that various measures have been taken to boost the Defence sector in India.

"In the past few years, numerous initiatives have been taken and various schemes have been launched to energise the defence sector in India and therefore we remain deeply committed to the ethos of indigenisation. We place a huge premium on transparency as well, the army's problems and deferential statements are released annually to provide a clear direction to the industry and the industry has responded rather well," said Rawat.

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The Army Chief also announced that the next defence expo is scheduled to be held in Lucknow in the first and second week of February 2020, where the defence industries supported by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and private enterprises will showcase their worth.

While addressing the  41st DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) Directors Conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, the Army Chief said that India is focusing on developing indigenous methods for Defence. He had also said, the next war will be won with the help of homegrown solutions. 

(With ANI inputs)

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