Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday urged India’s defence establishment to build a self-sustaining ecosystem that makes innovation and technology adoption seamless and instinctive.
Delivering the inaugural address at the Delhi Defence Dialogue organised by Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, Singh highlighted the importance of building systems and ecosystems that make the creation as well as adoption of new technology natural, swift and self-sustaining.
“If our foundations are strong, our institutions agile, our minds open, and our collaboration seamless, then every new technological wave will not overwhelm us. It will propel us. We will not merely adapt to revolutions made elsewhere, but become the architects of revolutions born here,” the defence minister said.
Emphasising the need to stay ahead of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and swarm tech, he said India must move from being an adaptor of global revolutions to becoming their architect. Singh underlined that true technological strength lies not only in advanced systems but also in the agility of institutions and the preparedness of people to absorb and apply them. He called for a shift towards digital sovereignty, indigenous software and a culture of innovation driving Aatmanirbharta.
"Harnessing technology is not just about adding new tools; it is about making our institutions more agile, anticipatory and adaptive, and creating a defence architecture that learns continuously, responds instantly and evolves relentlessly in tune with the pace of change,” the defence minister observed.
Singh noted that much of defence readiness rests on “invisible technologies which include secure data architectures, encrypted networks, automated maintenance systems and interoperable databases”.
Reiterating the importance of self-reliance in defence, Singh said, "True strategic autonomy will come only when our code is as indigenous as our hardware. We are, therefore, encouraging secure, indigenous software stacks, trusted semiconductor supply chains and home-grown AI models trained on Indian data."