The Ministry of Defence has approved procurement worth more than Rs. 24 bn from startups and micro, small and medium enterprises, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said. He also said projects worth more than Rs. 15 bn had been approved to develop new technology and make the country’s armed forces future-ready.

Between 8,000 and more than 12,000 MSMEs and over 600 startups are engaged as vendors, suppliers and sub-tier partners for defence public sector undertakings, ordnance factories and private-sector companies. Their participation has expanded the domestic industrial base supporting defence production and procurement.

Singh said India was reducing import dependence and increasing domestic production of advanced defence systems as part of efforts to build a self-reliant defence ecosystem. He added that the initiative was intended to strengthen national security while also supporting India’s contribution to global security.

India has achieved more than 90 per cent self-reliance in ammunition variants, with 159 of the 175 variants in the Indian Army’s inventory manufactured domestically, according to the minister. He said structural reforms over the past 12 years had helped all defence public sector undertakings become profitable and had provided fresh momentum to indigenous manufacturing.

The progress has also been reflected in defence exports, which now reach nearly 100 countries. Exports increased from Rs. 6.86 bn in 2013-14 to more than Rs. 380 bn in 2025-26, Singh said, adding that India needed to prepare for an era in which conventional military challenges increasingly intersected with digital and non-conventional threats.