Overview
- Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday that India’s armed forces now have both the freedom and the resources to respond decisively to threats, including striking targets inside an adversary’s territory.
- Singh framed the announcement as a shift from a reactive to a proactive defence posture intended to deter state-sponsored terrorism by removing the option of dialogue where hostile support for militants is alleged.
- The minister cited recent operations such as surgical strikes, the Balakot airstrike and last year’s Operation Sindoor and said the BrahMos missile played an important role in those actions.
- Officials gave figures for the defence industrial push, saying indigenous production rose from about Rs 40,000 crore before 2014 to roughly Rs 1.8 lakh crore and exports reached around Rs 38,000–38,500 crore with a target of Rs 50,000 crore by 2029.
- Singh linked the posture change to broader policy moves including MTCR entry, higher defence budgets, Defence Industrial Corridors and start-up participation, and said the goal is greater strategic autonomy and multi-domain modernisation in space, cyber and conventional forces.