From DPSUs to a technology-led defence ecosystem
The annual performance review of all 16 Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) under Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is important because these enterprises collectively form a major part of India’s strategic manufacturing base. The emphasis on indigenous technology, innovation and exports indicates that self-reliance is being treated not merely as replacing imports, but as developing the intellectual, technological and industrial capability to compete globally.
The participation of HAL, MDL, BEL, BDL, GRSE, BEML and MIDHANI also illustrates the breadth of this ecosystem—from aerospace and naval shipbuilding to electronics, missiles, heavy engineering and advanced materials. Their dividend payments to the Government for FY 2025–26 simultaneously demonstrate that defence manufacturing is being viewed as both a strategic capability and an economically productive public-sector activity.
The deeper transformation: “Make in India” → “Design in India”
The more consequential question is whether India can move beyond manufacturing products under licence to owning the underlying knowledge architecture: semiconductor electronics, sensors, radar, propulsion, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cyber capabilities, advanced materials, precision manufacturing and systems integration.
That is where Aatmanirbhar Bharat becomes a much larger proposition. True strategic autonomy means that the critical technologies necessary to defend the nation are increasingly conceived, designed, engineered, manufactured and upgraded within the Indian knowledge ecosystem.
Defence exports as a test of technological maturity
Defence exports provide an especially useful measure of this transition. An indigenous system becomes strategically significant when another sovereign country is willing to purchase it, integrate it into its forces and depend upon Indian industry for support and upgrades.
Thus, the objective should ultimately be:
Indian scientific minds → Indian R&D → Indian intellectual property → Indian manufacturing → Indian armed forces → global defence markets.
This creates a reinforcing cycle in which domestic military requirements stimulate research, research produces technologies, technologies create industrial capabilities, industrial capabilities generate exports, and export revenues finance the next generation of innovation.
The “system of minds” dimension
At an even deeper level, defence self-reliance is not fundamentally a question of factories alone. It is a question of human capability—scientists, engineers, technicians, entrepreneurs, military users, universities, laboratories and industrial organisations functioning as an integrated national knowledge system.
The decisive strategic asset of the 21st century therefore becomes the organised intelligence of the nation. Platforms such as aircraft, ships, missiles and satellites are the physical manifestations of that accumulated intellectual capability.
In this sense, the DPSU review can be seen as one component of a much larger national transformation: India attempting to convert its demographic and scientific potential into a coordinated technological power.
From self-reliance to technological leadership
The ultimate benchmark should therefore not be “How much defence equipment does India manufacture?” but:
> “How much of the world's next-generation defence technology can India conceive, create and export?”
That is the point at which Aatmanirbhar Bharat evolves from import substitution into technological leadership—with defence industry serving as one of the strongest engines connecting science, education, manufacturing, innovation, national security and global economic influence.
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