IAF Chief AP Singh launches Manish Kumar Jha’s new book on Strategic shift of Military Policies

The Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh inaugurates the book authored by Manish Kumar Jha at Air Force HQ in New Delhi. The book titled “Indian Way: Strategic Shift of Military and Foreign Policies”, attempts to comprehensively analyse and explore the key shifts, drivers, and impacts of these changes in India's foreign and military policies. What does it entail?

Military modernization represents a comprehensive process aimed at transforming a nation's defence capabilities in response to evolving geopolitical, technological, and security landscapes. As Air Force Chief AP Singh reflects and puts forth the need for the systematic upgrade of military equipment, and the adoption of advanced technologies. ?

India’s military modernization involves three core dimensions: hardware upgrades, technological integration, and strategic reforms. India's defence planning is shaped by its dual focus on countering immediate threats along its northern borders and ensuring the security of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) in the context of broader geopolitical competition, particularly with China in the Indo-Pacific.

However, the low R&D base and import dependency are our major shortcomings. While the government is undertaking a series of steps to boost the national R&D base by involving the private sector and start-ups the scale warrants urgency. This is what the Air Force Chief also elaborated on the need for the private sector to broaden the scale and scope of innovation and manufacturing.

New technologies in warfare across all domains have introduced an element of urgency to observe and adopt a new approach to the capability development paradigm to ensure favourable outcomes in any future conflict. Disrupters such areas as unmanned/autonomous vehicles/drones, smart nano drones and employment of swarms, space/satellite, and underwater tech etc will shape the tactical battle area. Technology must be at the centre of any debate for the armed forces.

For India, the most critical aspect in building a robust defence ecosystem is to create a massive pool of smart, next-gen and innovative tier 2/3 defence entities consisting of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) including Star-Ups.

Read all: