Representative image of a bomb.
Credit: iStock Photo
While the world stares at the possibility of World War III with conflicts among nations of West Asia and the Russia-Ukraine war going on for over a year, it is raining money in Nagpur's explosives market, colloquially known as the 'bomb bazaar'.
According to a report by The Times of India, the market, informally known as India's explosives capital, has dispatched shells, rockets and other raw materials for the manufacture of bombs worth Rs 900 crore in the last three months while orders worth around Rs 3,000 crore are being processed.
It is interesting to note that the top buyers of ammunition from this market situated along a 30-km stretch on the city's outskirts are not the conflict-ridden countries. As per the report, Bulgaria, Spain, Germany, South Africa, Vietnam, Poland, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia have figured among the top purchasers.
Though the manufacturers insist that they are not supplying arms to any country at war, the publication's sources have said that the end destination of these munitions could be somewhere else.
The countries buying the arms have also issued end-use certificates, which mean that the munitions are for their own consumption. These certificates help in Indian manufacturers getting government licences to sell arms and ammunition.
The manufacturers also emphasised that officially, the Indian military industry is not profiteering from war.
Data about district-wise export numbers is maintained by the Ministry of Commerce. For the export list of Nagpur, a new category of 'bombs and grenades' has been added this year. Bombs worth Rs 770 crore have been exported from Nagpur from April to June. Figures for the next quarter are yet to be compiled.
Raw material in high demand
As per the publication, apart from ammunition like shells and rockets, there is great demand globally for high-energy raw materials too. The companies in Nagpur ,including the public sector undertakings (PSUs) like Yantra India Ltd (YIL) and Munitions India Ltd (MIL), are catering to these heavy export orders.
The publication cited records maintained by some private portals on the basis of export filings made by exporters to government agencies and said that raw materials for manufacturing rockets, shells and bombs—HMX, RDX and TNT—are being exported in sizeable numbers. Raw powder was also sold to arms corporations across Europe, the Far East, and West Asia, shows data from official records.