With an objective of tracking the progress made in the Indian Defence industry, India’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has launched an online portal. The MoD said that the dashboard – accessible at ttps://ddpdashboard.gov.in/ – will “help in effective monitoring of various initiatives and schemes of the Department of Defence Production [DDP]”.

According to India’s Defence Production Secretary Ajay Kumar, the portal, which went online on 25 July, will enable the DDP to “keep track of the major components of defence production”.

The new ‘dashboard’ is operated by the MoD’s Department of Defence Production (DDP) and shows statistics for activities including defence production, offsets, exports, and investment in India’s two defence industrial corridors.

Here are some statistics available on the online portal:

Defence Exports

Up until 25 July 2019, the value of Indian defence export approvals in fiscal year 2019–20 (FY 2019–20) was ₹ 33.23 billion (USD 482 million). According to the dashboard, the majority of these export ‘authorisations’ (90%) was secured by the private sector, with the remainder allocated to state-owned enterprises.

The statistics also show that defence exports in FY 2018–19 reached ₹ 107.45 billion, a 129% increase over exports in FY 2017–18. The dashboard also shows a defence export target of ₹ 150 billion in FY 2019–20.

Defence Offsets

Up until 30 June, defence offset claims worth USD 1.57 billion had been “disposed” – or discharged – in India, according to the dashboard. The statistics also show that the total offsets to be disposed between 2005 and 2017 was USD 88 million, indicating a major increase in the past two years. In addition, the dashboard shows that more than USD 1 billion in defence offsets claims are currently “incomplete” or are under review by the MoD.

Defence Production

In FY 2018–19 the value of defence production in India was ₹ 805 billion, a 2% increase over FY 2017–18. State-owned enterprises undertook 79% of total defence production work in FY 2018–19, with the private sector securing the remaining 21%.

In FY 2017–18 the ratio was 80%:20% and one year earlier it was 81%:19%, with state-owned enterprises undertaking the bulk of production in both periods. The dashboard also indicated a total defence production target of ₹ 900 billion for FY 2019–20.

Corridor Investment

According to the dashboard, by the end of June 2019 a total of ₹ 68.75 billion had been announced as investments in the two defence industrial corridors being established in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

As of 30th June 2019, ₹ 3,732 crores were approved for the Uttar Pradesh defence corridor while ₹ 3143 crores were approved for the Tamil Nadu defence corridor.

The statistics show that the majority of this investment has been committed by state-owned enterprises including the Ordnance Factory Board, Hindustan Aeronautics, and Bharat Electronics. The investment target in each corridor is ₹ 100 billion.