Union Home Minister Amit Shah, addressing a political rally in Maharashtra, said India has shifted from being a buyer of bullets to a manufacturer of missiles, casting the country's defence production growth as proof of a broader self-reliance push under the current government. He pointed to homegrown missile and weapons programmes as evidence that India no longer needs to depend on imports for its core military hardware.
The claim lines up with data from the defence ministry showing India's domestic arms production hit a record high in the last fiscal year, with total output crossing roughly 1.78 lakh crore rupees. Private companies have steadily expanded their share of that production, now accounting for close to a quarter of total defence manufacturing output, up from a far smaller share just a few years ago.
The growth has been driven by a mix of policy changes, including production-linked incentives, easier licensing for private defence manufacturers, and a long-running effort to localize components for missile and air-defence systems. Officials say the goal is to cut import dependence further while also positioning India as an exporter of defence equipment to other countries.
Shah's remarks come as the government continues to promote its self-reliant India initiative across sectors, with defence manufacturing held up as one of its clearest success stories. Independent assessments of the programme have noted that import dependence for certain high-end components and technologies remains significant, even as finished-system production has grown substantially.
