NEW DELHI: India wants to double defence exports over the next five years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday, as the country seeks to cut its import bill amid a funding crunch that has forced successive governments to go slow on new orders. “For several years India has been a net importer of defence products. “Our aim is to increase exports of defence products to five billion dollars in five years,” Modi said, adding that India exports about 170 billion Indian rupees ($2.4 billion) of defence products. According to government data, India’s major defence export customers include Italy, Sri Lanka, Russia and France. Laxman Behera, research fellow at Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, said in a report released on Tuesday that India’s defence resource crunch had been acute in recent years.

Source: Pakistan Today February 05, 2020 15:56 UTC