The four-day DefExpo India (April 11-14) held in Chennai has ambitiously positioned India as an emerging defence manufacturing hub and an exporter of defence systems and components. Such an objective appears audacious, given that India is the world’s top importer of arms and does not figure among the top 25 arms exporters. Yet, indigenisation of defence procurement is critical for both strategic reasons and for the success of Make in India. India accounted for 12 per cent of total global arms imports during 2013-17. It spends around 30 per cent of its total defence budget on capital acquisitions and 60
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