New Delhi | August 26, 2026 | INFRAINTEL Bureau
Defence Production Secretary Sanjeev Kumar has warned that manufacturing based primarily on transferred foreign technology can advance India’s defence sector only to a limited point and cannot deliver genuine self-reliance.
Addressing a national conference on aerospace and defence manufacturing, Kumar said countries and companies do not normally transfer their latest military technologies to external partners.
He urged original-equipment manufacturers and tier-one, tier-two and tier-three suppliers to allocate resources to research and development, create indigenous intellectual property and design products in India.
Kumar acknowledged that foreign technology should be acquired where domestic capability is absent, but cautioned against consistently choosing the easier route of licensed manufacturing.
He argued that gaps in emerging technology areas are narrower than in traditional manufacturing and can be closed if Indian companies accept the commercial and technical risks involved in developing original products.
The official also said global uncertainty had encouraged countries in Europe and Asia to rebuild defence-industrial capacity and diversify supply chains. Advanced economies were increasingly looking to India as a manufacturing partner, creating what he described as a time-limited opportunity.
The statement identifies a structural weakness in measuring self-reliance through production value alone. Domestic assembly under foreign control may raise output without creating authority over design, upgrades, source code, critical components or export decisions.
Progress should therefore be measured through company-funded research, patents, indigenous subsystem content, ownership of design data, test infrastructure, successful prototypes and exportable Indian platforms. Government procurement must also tolerate responsible development risk and provide predictable demand for firms investing in original technology.