Fire in the belly: Defence industry must move from 'Make in India' to 'Own in India'

India's defence industry must now move beyond contract manufacturing and licensed production to build indigenous intellectual property, scalable manufacturing capacity and globally competitive systems if the country wants to emerge as a serious defence power, industry leaders said on Saturday.

The consensus across the panel 'From an Importer to a Defence Power: Can Private Industry Deliver?' was that the next phase of growth will depend on shifting from 'Make in India' to 'Own in India', with private industry seeking a bigger role in making advanced weapons, drones, energetics and accelerating exports. The discussion was moderated by ET's Manu Pubby.

Satyanarayan Nuwal, founder and chairman of Solar Group, made a strong case for deeper trust in private industry, arguing that domestic firms have already demonstrated the ability to build and deliver complex systems. Citing the company's work in loitering munitions, Nuwal said his company's weaponised drones have been used by the armed forces in Operation Sindoor and an additional four variants are being developed.

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Nuwal said India had already shown that private companies could reduce import dependence in critical segments if given the right policy support and market opportunity. Recalling the country's earlier dependence on imported high-energy materials, he said, "Five to six years back, we were totally dependent on imports," adding that Solar had now created the country's largest such manufacturing facility and was exporting to markets including Israel, the US and Europe.

The industry leader shared that exports now contribute about 40% of the company's revenue, underlining the growing global competitiveness of Indian private players in specialised defence production.

He also made a case for opening up more strategic segments to Indian private firms, particularly in weapons design and development. "The government should give the lead to private industries to allow the design and development of the long-range missiles and different types of ammunition," Nuwal said, adding that if private industry develops the capability, "they should be given preference".

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Nuwal gave the example of counter-drone capability, an area that has gained urgency because of the growing role of unmanned systems in conflict, sharing that Solar's indigenous counter-drone system, Bhagavastra, based on a micro-missile concept, had already undergone successful testing and that the company was "very confident" of submitting the complete system before the end of October. "This can be a gamechanger for this country," he said, also indicating that the system had begun attracting overseas sales interest.

Rajendra Chodankar, founder and chairman, RRP Defense, said the opportunity for Indian firms had widened considerably, sharing that his company has moved into the field of semiconductors and is offering drone interceptors to the armed forces. But he cautioned that durable success would not come through superficial localisation. "Licence technology is not a solution, technology transfer is not a solution; if you have an IP, I think that is the only way," Chodankar said. The industry leader also made a strong case for an aggressive approach towards exports, pointing out that at present, the private sector is contributing heavily towards Indian defence exports.

Puneet Kaura, CEO at Samtel Avionics, underscored the importance of true product ownership in turning India into a meaningful exporter of defence technology. He said demand for Indian-developed systems was rising across geographies including Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa, but added that export success would require faster processing and stronger institutional backing for companies operating abroad. He also shared that his company is focusing strongly on the space sector and will soon be announcing new ventures and tie ups to bring in niche technologies.

Sameer Joshi, CEO and director of Newspace Research and Technologies, also stressed that India's long-term success would depend not on assembly-led growth but on sovereign ownership of hardware and software. "This is not the destination," Joshi said in reference to licence-based production, arguing instead for "a IP or a sovereign hardware and software production in India". He said the path to that goal depends heavily on scale orders from the government, adding: "There is an order which comes that builds up your capability. When you build up your capability you get funding, you do R&D, and you go into many other pivots like exports".

Joshi also pointed out that R&D support mechanisms put in place by the government still fall short when companies need to transition from prototype to operational product, arguing that companies need more focused support rather than fragmented funding across too many programmes.