Aatmanirbharta is a quest for technological sovereignty, says Rajnath Singh

Rajnath Singh says defence self-reliance must go beyond manufacturing to technological sovereignty, with stronger indigenous research, intellectual property and partnerships

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 buyer-seller arrangements in defence procurement and build partnerships centred on co-development, co-production and shared innovation. Such collaboration, he said, would help India access advanced technologies while improving its own industrial and research capabilities.

 

The government has set a target of more than ₹3 trillion in annual defence production and over ₹50,000 crore in defence exports by 2029. Defence production stood at approximately ₹1.78 trillion in 2025-26, while exports reached ₹38,424 crore, with Indian defence products going to more than 80 countries, he said.

 

He also underlined the changing character of warfare and the growing importance of emerging technologies. 

 

“Military preparedness in the 21st century cannot be separated from technological and industrial preparedness,” Singh said, calling for closer coordination among academic institutions, research laboratories, public-sector defence companies, private firms and startups. 

 

Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, speaking earlier in the day on “Aatmanirbharta in Naval Systems at 2047”, described self-reliance as a “strategic necessity” for the navy. He said the force’s vision was to build a navy that could “fight, sustain, and adapt” without being constrained by external dependencies.

 

He said that India designed, built and commissioned more than 100 warships, and had 42 ships on order at Indian shipyards, while still depending on foreign sources for some critical components and technologies. 

 

Admiral Swaminathan called that the next phase of indigenisation must focus on subsystems, materials and components, alongside emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum technology, robotics and semiconductors.

 

He said Aatmanirbharta did not mean isolation, and called for international partnerships “from a position of strength, not from a position of weakness”.

 

The event highlighted the need to build a self-reliant ecosystem through indigenous research, strong industrial capabilities, and partnerships to meet the long-term defence requirements.