India must move from ‘Make in India’ to ‘Think in India’: Army Chief

New Delhi, Sep 23: Stating that India must move from “Make in India” to “Think in India,” Chief of the Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi on Tuesday said that ‘Operation Sindoor’ demonstrated the positive impact of self-reliant technology, and the need of the hour is to remain ahead of evolving threats.
Addressing the inaugural session of the Tri Services Academia Technology Symposium (T-SATS) at the Manekshaw Centre, the Army Chief, said, “We have to encourage domestic ideation, innovation, and system development by industry, think tanks, and academia.”
He compared technological adaptation in warfare to a game of chess, saying that failing to think ahead would lead to setbacks.
He said, “While indigenous scalability has been shown, further investment in niche technology and enterprise-scale implementation is required.”
He said India’s proposed air defence system, Sudarshan Chakra, would integrate multiple protective layers, starting with counter-drone systems and extending to counter-UAV and counter-hypersonic systems. “Some elements cannot not be discussed publicly for security reasons but I assure you that it’s one of the best systems in the world,” he added.
The Army Chief said the system would combine sensors, missiles, surveillance apparatus, and artificial intelligence tools to provide both defence and offensive capabilities.
According to him, the concept was in the ideation phase but would be comprehensive in scope. He cautioned that adversaries were also improving their capabilities, pointing to the drones encountered during Operation Sindoor, which had shown advanced features including the use of artificial intelligence and visual navigation even after GPS jamming.
He said India’s counter-drone and GPS-jamming systems had performed effectively during the operation, minimising damage. However, he added that similar results could not be assumed in the future because adversaries would adapt once they understood India’s current capabilities.
He cited examples from the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict and the Russia-Ukraine war, where relatively inexpensive drones had caused significant damage to costly military assets. He said this reflected the cycle of innovation and adaptation in warfare, where the side adapting faster gained an advantage.
He said self-reliance provided not only independence but also the ability to surprise an adversary. Such surprises, he added, could only be used once before the other side learned, requiring continuous innovation.
He said the economic dimension of war also needed to be considered. Drones were now both military and commercial assets, and their wider use would affect security as well as the economy.
General Dwivedi said Mission Sudarshan Chakra would aim to integrate multiple defence layers and advanced systems, keeping India ahead of adversaries while remaining economically viable.
A new portal was launched ahead of the symposium to connect researchers and academic institutes across the country, and the response had been substantial. (KNO)