Using expensive Main Battle Tanks as protective shields is economically inefficient. Their value, if any, lies in offence, not in stationary protection.
India spends heavily on defence but does not finance it. That distinction separates mature defence-industrial economies from those trapped in yearly budget cycles.
Within the modern-day Samudra Manthan lies the opportunity for India to redefine its role on the world stage by building a robust, adaptive security architecture.
PTC Industries is investing Rs 1,000 cr in 4 manufacturing plants in UP, has already started supplying titanium parts to BAE Systems for its M-777 howitzers that India also uses.
SIPRI’s latest data on Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2024, shows China spent $314 bn on its military in 2024, India spent $86.1 bn, while Pakistan spent $10.2 bn.
Speaking at an event, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh also made a strong pitch for collaborative project between a foreign firm & Indian pvt player to produce fighter aircraft in India.
We are throwing money at imports while slipping behind competitors—China, certainly, but also Iran, South Korea, and Turkey—in technologies like stealth fighters, drones, and hypersonic missiles.
The once-dominant India-Russia defence relationship is waning. In its place, crude oil supplies have become the centrepiece of bilateral ties, signalling a fundamental shift.
India's defence industry now supplies to over 90 countries, with exports growing by more than 30 times in 10 years. Equipment exported is wide-ranging, from small arms to armoured vehicles.
Delivering a lecture for Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), Lt General P.R. Shankar (Retd) says while India did not require a rocket force, it certainly needed ‘integrated thinking and jointness’.
For an industry globally classified as hazardous, protections such as health insurance and a provident fund for workers are necessities. In Sivakasi, they remain elusive.
The industry forecasts exports are set to grow 16% in 2025-26, boosted by surplus domestic production and a drive to push into 26 underserved global markets with strong potential.
Indigenisation level will progressively increase up to 60 percent with key sub-assemblies, electronics and mechanical parts being manufactured locally.
It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.
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