Parliament panel warns defence PSUs on order execution

The Story in Brief

A parliamentary panel has told the defence ministry that defence PSUs must improve project execution and delivery schedules to capitalise on their robust order books. The combined orders of nine defence PSUs stood at Rs 6,80,969 crore as of March 31, 2026, with HAL holding the largest share at Rs 2,51,043 crore, followed by BEL at Rs 74,000 crore. The panel also pressed for better foreign market access, noting that while MDL acquired a controlling stake in Sri Lanka's Colombo Dockyard PLC for Rs 452 crore, other PSUs need to accelerate export growth.

India's defence exports hit a record Rs 38,424 crore in 2025-26, a 63% jump from the previous year. Defence PSUs contributed 54.84% of this total, with their exports surging 151% year-on-year to Rs 21,071 crore. However, the parliamentary committee flagged that overall export growth is concentrated in a few PSUs, and asked the ministry to review its 'ease of doing business' reforms to remove procedural bottlenecks. India remains the world's second-largest arms importer despite a 4% drop in imports between 2016-20 and 2021-25, according to a SIPRI report.