Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Emerging Science, Technology and Innovation Conclave 2025 in New Delhi, announcing a INR 100,000 crore RDI Fund to boost India’s research and innovation ecosystem. He emphasized inclusivity, women’s participation, and a commitment to ethical AI. The event aims to inspire new generations of scientists and innovators.
The introduction of the Buy (Indian–IDDM) category aimed to promote self-reliance in India’s defense sector. However, a decade later, urgency in procurement, spurred by mechanisms like Emergency Procurement, has diluted original intentions, favoring imports over innovation. Reforms are necessary to ensure genuine support for indigenous defense firms and maintain strategic autonomy.
On October 16, 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated an Advanced Night Vision products factory in Nimmaluru, Andhra Pradesh, with an investment of INR 360 crore. This facility aims to enhance India’s defense production capabilities, create skilled employment, and solidify self-reliance by manufacturing vital electro-optical systems for the armed forces.
India’s SMPP Limited has signed an MoU with the Philippines’ Asia Defence and Firepower Corporation to establish a joint venture for manufacturing defence products aimed at the Philippine armed forces. This partnership supports the Philippines’ Self-Reliant Defence Posture, promotes Indian defence technology, and boosts local manufacturing capabilities.
By John Spencer India’s transformation into a modern defence power began in 2014, when Prime Minister Modi launched the “Make in India” initiative. The goal was clear: reduce dependence on foreign arms imports and build a world-class domestic defence industry. The policy incentivised joint ventures, opened the defence […]
By A Correspondent New Delhi: India‘s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 12, 2025, warned Pakistan of a nuclear catastrophe, referencing the 1974 and 1998 Indian nuclear weapons tests, albeit in a veiled threat, by talking of Gautama Buddha‘s birth anniversary today and Shakti (Power) in the same […]
By A Correspondent New Delhi: At a media briefing in New Delhi on May 7, 2025, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri issued a formal statement on India’s Operation Sindoor as a punitive military action against Pakistan‘s terror infrastructure in response to the Apr. 22, 2025, terror attack in […]
By N. C. Bipindra (ADDS: Media briefing by India at 10:30 a.m. on May 7, 2025, and additional background.) New Delhi: India punishes Pakistan again. This time, India’s army and air force carried out coordinated precision strikes on nine terror camp locations inside Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, targeting […]
By N. C. Bipindra New Delhi: India has signed an INR 64,000-crore (~US$7.5 billion) government-to-government contract with France to buy 26 Rafale Marine fighter jets for the Indian Navy aircraft carriers INS Vikrant and INS Vikramaditya. Under the deal, French plane-maker Dassault Aviation shall build a fuselage production […]
By N. C. Bipindra New Delhi: It is official now. US President Donald Trump has effectively set up a contest between American F-35 and Russian Su-57 for India‘s big-ticket need for a fifth-generation fighter aircraft to catch up with arch-rival China on high-end combat jets. Trump, after meeting […]
During AeroIndia 2025, Boeing Defence India managing director Nikhil Joshi tells our editor N. C. Bipindra that the American company’s India sourcing has grown five times in a decade, with over 300 suppliers. Boeing also employs 6.500 engineers, based at its engineering and technology centre at Bengaluru and […]
By A Correspondent New Delhi: In the regular Union Budget of Financial Year (FY) 2024-25 presented by India’s Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been allocated Rs 6,21,940.85 crore (approx. US$75 billion), the highest allocation among Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s […]
By N. C. Bipindra for EurAsian Times India officially declared itself a nuclear weapons state in May 1998 following the ‘Shakti’ nuclear tests in the Rajasthan desert, popularly called Pokhran-II. But it spelled out its official nuclear doctrine for the first time publicly in January 2003 through a […]
By Neeraj Rajput and N. C. Bipindra for EurAsian Times New Delhi: India is sending its Rafale combat jets to France for a multi-nation air exercise. This is the first time the 2020-inducted Indian Air Force (IAF) fighters have flown overseas to join a wargame in a friendly […]
By N. C. Bipindra Vadodara (Gujarat): India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for C-295 transport aircraft manufacturing facility — the country’s first military production effort in the private sector — in Vadodara, Gujarat today. The facility will manufacture C-295 aircraft for the Indian Air Force […]
