NEW DELHI: India exported defence goods and technology worth a record-breaking Rs 13,000 crore in 2021–22, a remarkable 54.1 percent increase over the prior year, a top defence ministry official said on Friday.

The country's defence exports are chiefly to the US, the Philippines and other countries in the South-East Asia, the MiddleEast and Africa. "In 2021-22, we have recorded Rs.13,000 crore of exports which is the biggest ever exports number that we have recorded in defence," Sanjay Jaju, Additional Secretary in the Department of Defence Production (DDP), said in a press briefing.

The exports in 2021-22 were almost 8 times of what they were about 5 years back, he said. India's defence exports were worth Rs8,434 crore in 2020-21, Rs9,115 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 2,059 crore in 2015-16. "There has been good progress. Of course, two years of COVID-19 was a bit of a setback. But this year, we have been able to record this number (of Rs 13,000 crore)," he said.

At an event titled "Artificial Intelligence in Defence" on Monday, the defence ministry will reward a private sector organisation and another from the public sector that performed the best in defence exports, he said. Generally private sector companies dominate the defence exports market with a share of almost 90 percent, he  said. Last year, Indian public sector companies also did well contributing 30 percent to the country's defence exports, he added.

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