Self-reliance in defence must go beyond domestic manufacturing to achieve technological sovereignty and reduce dependence on foreign suppliers for critical military requirements, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday, calling for greater investment in indigenous research, intellectual property and industrial capabilities.
Speaking at the Delhi Defence Dialogue, an annual security conference organised by the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, a state-backed autonomous think tank, Singh said India must move from being a buyer of defence technology to a country that designed, developsed and competed in global markets.
Senior defence officials, veterans, academics, and industry and foreign delegates were present.
“Aatmanirbharta must be understood as a quest for technological sovereignty.
It does not mean producing everything ourselves.
It means ensuring that our critical defence requirements are not held hostage to external dependencies,” the minister said.
He called for true self-reliance that could not be measured merely by assembling a defence platform in India.
“It is achieved when we possess the knowledge to design it, the technology to manufacture it, the intellectual property to improve it, and the capability to sustain it throughout its life cycle,” he said.
Singh said India’s pursuit of self-reliance should not be viewed as a move away from international partnerships.
He said that self-reliance without collaboration could “limit our technological horizons”, adding that Aatmanirbharta was “not a retreat from world”.
He also called for India to go beyond conventional....
