Indian military leaders emphasize land victory and defence self-reliance

At the NDTV Defence Summit, Indian Army Chief General Dhiraj Seth and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh emphasized the importance of territorial control and domestic self-reliance in modern warfare.

General Seth stated that despite rapid technological advancements and the rise of information warfare on social media, land victory remains the only ‘tangible and useful factor of success.’ He noted that while technology may shorten individual battles, it does not necessarily shorten the duration of wars, which are increasingly characterized by indefinite timelines and intermittent periods of intense fighting.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh advocated for a self-reliant defence ecosystem, spanning ‘from chips to ships.’ He argued that achieving strategic autonomy requires India to design, manufacture, and sustain its own weapon systems and critical technologies, such as artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and robotics. Singh asserted that India maintains both the ‘power of argument’ and the ‘argument of power,’ emphasizing that soft power must complement, rather than replace, robust military capabilities.