India’s defence exports surged to a record ₹38,424 crore in FY2025-26, up 62.66% from ₹23,622 crore a year earlier. DPSUs led the jump, with exports soaring 151% to ₹21,071 crore, while private sector exports rose 14% to ₹17,353 crore. India now exports defence equipment to over 80 countries through 145 exporters.
For a long time, India was known more as a defence importer than an exporter. That has been changing steadily over the past several years, and the numbers from FY2025-26 make that shift difficult to ignore. India's defence exports have reached ₹38,424 crore, the highest figure ever recorded, and nearly three times what the country exported just five years ago.
The total export figure for FY2025-26 stands at ₹38,424 crore, up from ₹23,622 crore in the previous fiscal year. That is an increase of ₹14,802 crore, or 62.66%, in a single year.
Financial Year | Exports (₹. Crore) | YOY Growth |
2021-2022 | 12,815 | Base Year |
2022-2023 | 16,000 | 24.85% |
2023-2024 | 21,083 | 31.77% |
2024-2025 | 23,622 | 12.04% |
2025-2026 | 38,424 | 62.66% |
Two groups drove this growth. Defence Public Sector Undertakings, commonly known as DPSUs, contributed ₹21,071 crore, up from ₹8,389 crore the year before. That is a 151% jump. The private sector contributed ₹17,353 crore, up from ₹15,233 crore, a 14% increase. In this landmark milestone, DPSUs accounted for 54.84% of total exports and the private sector for the remaining 45.16%.
What stands out here is not just the overall growth but the pace of DPSU expansion. Public sector defence companies more than doubled their export output in a single year, which points to a meaningful shift in how these organisations are operating and competing internationally.
As of FY2025-26, India is exporting defence equipment to more than 80 countries. The range of products being exported now goes beyond simple components and sub-systems. Indian manufacturers are supplying complete systems to international buyers, which reflects a more mature and capable defence industrial base.
The number of companies actively exporting also grew. There were 145 exporters in FY2025-26, up from 128 the year before, a 13.3% increase. More companies entering the export market is a meaningful signal. It suggests that the growth is not concentrated in a handful of large organisations but is becoming more distributed across the sector.
One of the changes that helped was simplifying the process for companies looking to export defence products. The Department of Defence Production updated its online portal for export authorisations and made the Standard Operating Procedure easier to follow. For smaller private sector companies, this mattered because the earlier process was time consuming and difficult to navigate.
Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh acknowledged the performance of defence exporters and the Department of Defence Production, noting that India is moving towards becoming a global manufacturing hub for defence equipment.
The Nifty India Defence Index delivered a price return of 12.83% in FY2025-26, measured from the closing of March 31, 2025 to the closing of March 30, 2026, outperforming the Nifty 50 index over the same period. The index started the financial year around the 6,500 level and climbed steadily through April and May 2025, reaching its peak close to 8,800 to 9,195 levels by June 2025. From there it pulled back and spent much of the second half of the year ranging between 7,400 and 8,500, without reclaiming those earlier highs.
A brief recovery in February and early March 2026 pushed the index back towards 8,000 before another round of selling brought it down to close the financial year at 7,214.30 on March 30, 2026. While the 12.83% annual return reflects a positive year overall, the index gave up a significant portion of its mid-year gains in the months that followed. The chart suggests that investor enthusiasm for defence stocks was strongest in the first quarter of the financial year and became more cautious as valuations moved higher.
Source: Nifty Indices
India has been working for several years to build domestic defence manufacturing capacity, reduce dependence on imports, and establish Indian companies as reliable suppliers in international markets. The FY2025-26 numbers reflect the outcome of that effort.
Whether this continues will depend on how consistently Indian manufacturers can deliver on quality, meet timelines, and compete on price in markets where they are still relatively new. The base is in place. The next few years will show how far it can go.
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