Defence production at Rs 1.78 lakh crore: Rajnath Singh sets out India's next priorities
Ongoing conflicts in west Asia and Ukraine have once again put a spotlight on the importance of indigenous weapons development and manufacturing. As these two prolonged conflicts have shown that owning the most advanced weapons is no longer enough. Relatively inexpensive drones and autonomous systems are challenging sophisticated and costly platforms and battlefields now stretch beyond land, sea and air into space, cyberspace and the digital domain.While addressing the third edition of the Delhi Defence Dialogue at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), Defence Minister Rajnath Singh stated that military preparedness in the 21st century cannot be separated from technological and industrial preparedness.
The two-day dialogue, brings together policymakers, military officials, industry representatives, academics and strategic experts.Beyond making in IndiaSingh said Aatmanirbharta should be understood as a quest for technological sovereignty. It does not mean producing everything at home, he said, but making sure critical defence requirements are not "held hostage to external dependencies".
True self-reliance, in his words, means having the knowledge to design a platform, the technology to build it, the intellectual property to upgrade it and the ability to sustain it through its lifecycle. He added that this is not a retreat from the world but a sign of a more self-assured India that can engage international partners.The defence minister described reforms, Aatmanirbharta, international collaboration and exports as four pillars that must move together.
Reforms show the willingness to change, self-reliance the determination to create, collaboration the confidence to partner and exports the readiness to compete. Without the other three, he said, self-reliance alone would limit India's technological horizons, industrial scale and global competitiveness, a point he tied to the ambition of becoming a developed nation by 2047.The numbers behind the pushDefence production reached a record Rs 1.78 lakh crore in 2025-26, Singh said, while exports rose to Rs 38,424 crore, with Indian products now reaching more than 80 countries.
The government has set targets of Rs 3 lakh crore in production and Rs 50,000 crore in exports by 2029. That would mean production nearly 70% above the current level and exports about 30% higher, which is why he called for improvements in manufacturing capacity, product quality and global competitiveness.He said the government wants more private participation in advanced programmes such as the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, propulsion systems, the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System, artillery ammunition and shipbuilding, with room for MSMEs, start-ups and academia.
On foreign partnerships, he called for a shift from procurement and licensed manufacturing to co-development, co-production and shared innovation, with meaningful Indian participation in design, access to critical technologies, appropriate sharing of intellectual property and a place in global supply chains. India's large domestic market and pool of engineering talent, he said, offer foreign firms real opportunities.Research and the armed forcesSingh also said the armed forces must remain stakeholders in research and development, since their operational experience helps set priorities and judge which emerging technologies matter.
At the same time, he said, scientists need the freedom to pursue unconventional ideas beyond immediate operational requirements. Innovations, he added, must move out of laboratories and prototype stages into production and induction.Navy chief Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, speaking earlier on Aatmanirbharta in naval systems at 2047, called it a strategic necessity. He said India needs a navy that can fight, sustain and adapt without being constrained by external dependencies, and that self-reliance does not mean isolation.
India, he said, should collaborate with friendly countries from a position of strength.Taken together, the two speeches point to the same lesson. With wars increasingly decided by who can innovate, manufacture and replenish fastest, the test for India's defence industry will be how well it turns record production into sustained capability.
