Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The arms revenues of the three top Indian companies producing defence equipment rose by 8.2 per cent to $7.5 billion last year, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The ‘Top 100 international list of arms producers’ released on December 1 by SIPRI, the premier institution monitoring international arms manufacturing and trade, features three Indian companies: Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDSL).
SIPRI said that HAL remained India’s biggest defence producer, with arms revenue of $3.8 billion. It ranked 44 in the SIPRI list of Top 100 arms manufacturers, down from 42 in 2023, with its revenue slipping by 0.3 per cent.
HAL produces a range of aviation and space products, many of which are for civilian use.
Of its total revenues of $4 billion, the SIPRI report said 95 per cent came from arms, and only those were considered for the Top 100 list. BEL, India’s second biggest defence producer, recorded the biggest revenue increase among the three Indian companies in the Top 100 list, a rise of 23.6 per cent from 2023 to $3.8 billion last year.
SPRI attributed the rise in arms revenue to “orders from the Indian government for radars and electronic warfare systems”. Its global rank rose ten places to 58 from 68 in 2023. Of BEL’s total revenues of $2.75 billion, 89.9 per cent came from arms manufacturing, SIPRI said. The defence sector revenues of MDSL, whose range of products include submarines and warships, rose by 9.38 per cent last year to $1.12 billion, SIPRI said. Its total revenue last year was $1.37 billion, 89.8 per cent of which came from defence manufacturing, and it retained the global rank of 91.
Globally, SIPRI said, the arms revenues of the companies on the Top 100 list set a new record, increasing by 5.9 per cent in 2024 to $679 billion, mostly due to overall increases in the arms revenues of companies based in Europe and the United States. The US company, Lockheed Martin, led the SIPRI Top 100 list, with arms revenues of $62 billion. Pakistan’s military expenditures were $10.165 billion and China’s was $313.67 billion.