New Delhi [India], April 1 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday referred to India's record defence exports in the financial year (FY) 2024-25 as "a proud milestone" in the journey towards the country's self-reliance.Defence exports have surged to a record high of Rs 23,622 crore in FY 25, marking a growth of 12.04 per cent at 2,539 crore over FY24's figure of Rs 21,083 crore.Reposting Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's post on X, PM Modi said, "This is indeed a proud milestone in our journey towards self-reliance and global leadership in defence manufacturing!"Rajnath Singh earlier congratulated all the stakeholders on achieving this feat. He stated that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is marching towards achieving the target of increasing defence exports to Rs 50,000 crore by 2029.The Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) have shown a significant increase of 42.85 per cent in their exports in FY 2024-25, reflecting the growing acceptability of Indian products in the global market and the ability of the Indian defence industry to be a part of the global supply chain."The private sector and DPSUs have contributed Rs 15,233 crore and Rs 8,389 crore respectively to defence exports in 2024-25, whereas the corresponding figures for FY 2023-24 were Rs 15,209 crore and Rs 5,874 crore respectively," the Ministry of Defence's statement read.India has evolved from a largely import-dependent military force to one increasingly focused on self-reliance and indigenous production. In a major boost to defence exports, a wide range of items, from ammunition, arms, sub-systems/systems, and parts & components, have been exported to around 80 countries in the just-concluded FY.The Department of Defence Production has a dedicated portal for the application and processing of export authorisation requests, and 1,762 export authorisations were issued in FY25 compared to 1,507 in the preceding year, registering a growth of 16.92 per cent. The total number of exporters also grew by 17.4 per cent in the same period, as per the Ministry.Many policy reforms have been introduced by the government in the past few years to boost the Indian defence industry, such as the simplification of the industrial licensing procedure, removal of parts and components from the licence regime, extending the validity period of licences, etc. In addition, the SOP for granting export authorisations was further simplified, and more provisions were added in the last financial year to boost exports from the country. (ANI)