By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said India’s defence exports have increased nearly 34-fold in the last 11 years.
“Our defence exports have increased nearly 34-fold in the last 11 years. We aim to achieve defence production worth Rs 3 lakh crore and defence exports worth Rs 50,000 crore by 2029,” he said addressing Sardar Sabha in Vadodara, Gujarat as part of the ‘Unity March’ organised by Mera Yuva (MY) Bharat under Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Voicing the Government’s unwavering resolve to safeguarding national interests ever since it came to power, Singh said before 2014, India was ranked 11th in the world in terms of economic size, and today, it has reached the fourth position, poised to soon join the top three economies.
He asserted that the Government has been working with the goal of ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance’, while carrying forward Sardar Patel’s legacy of an independent nation through political and geographical unity. “Our government is binding India with a fabric of cultural, social, spiritual, and economic unity. We are moving forward with the vision of ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’. We aim to build a Viksit Bharat by 2047,” he said.
Singh urged the youth to strive and realise the dream of a developed India, stating that maintaining the unity, integrity & sovereignty of the nation is a responsibility that Sardar Patel left to the future generations of the country. “It is our responsibility to keep the country and society united. We must pledge that we will not only inculcate the values of Sardar Patel with complete devotion and purity, but will also prepare future generations for them. This would be a true tribute to the legacy of Sardar Patel,” he said.