Operation Sindoor defining moment in counter-terror strategy: President Draupadi Murmu

“The Indian Armed Forces have exemplified professionalism and patriotism in guarding the sovereignty of India. During every security challenge, whether conventional, counter-insurgency or humanitarian, our forces have displayed remarkable adaptability and resolve,” she said.

“The recent success of Operation Sindoor stands as a defining moment in our counter-terror and deterrence strategy. The world took note not only of India’s military capability but of India’s moral clarity to act firmly, yet responsibly in the pursuit of peace,” she said, adding that beyond its operational role, the Indian defence forces remain a pillar of national development.

At the dialogue, Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said that defence public sector undertakings (DPSUs) and private firms must be combined into a unified dual-production pipeline, while citing the example of China, which had used civil-military fusion to produce complex military systems at a fast pace.

He said that China has built a hybrid defence and industrial machine, which is able to blend central direction with market discipline using enforceable key performance indicators and dual use of research and development, and are able to scale up complex systems quickly.

He also highlighted that 75% of the capital procurement budget is now earmarked for domestic industry, with a dedicated share for private sector, driving indigenisation, innovation, and a growing defence industrial base.

Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi outlined a set of springboards that will drive transformation for the force years ahead, to remain decisive and future-ready in this rapidly evolving global landscape. He said the first one is ‘atmanirbharta’, the self-reliance and empowerment through indigenisation, second is accelerated innovation, and the other two are adaptation and military-civil fusion.

He said, “We must now move on from experimentation to enterprise-scale impact at a much faster pace in AI, cyber, quantum, autonomous systems, space and advanced materials.”

He said if the globe is swivelling towards national security, deterrence and war-fighting, it raises questions about how the Indian military should transform to remain ready.

Gen Dwivedi said the starting point to this question lies in the vision of PM Narendra Modi’s 5Ss approach—‘Samman, Samvad, Sayog, Samridhi, and Suraksha’, meaning respect, dialogue, cooperation, prosperity and security. Gen Dwivedi outlined a three-phase plan to make it a future-ready force.

Phase one is to set the agenda for the journey of the force by 2032, while phase two for 2037 is a five-year consolidated period, and phase three with a 2047 vision to graduate to the next level of integrated future-ready force design.

In a separate address, CDS General Anil Chauhan said that warfare invents itself constantly and concepts that appear futuristic can become obsolete even before they are implemented, adding that the ability to visualise, anticipate and prepare for future conflicts is existential for a military, and not an option.

“Major powers are modernising their arsenals, long-standing treaties have eroded, and regional tensions from South Asia to the Korean Peninsula are driving new nuclear ambitions,” the CDS said.

“Some states now signal the acceptability of nuclear weapons. This thin boundary between rhetoric and demonstration of actual capabilities is causing instability in the global nuclear domain,” he said.

He also cited Russia’s pursuit of nuclear-powered systems, China’s expansion of its nuclear arsenals, and US President Donald Trump’s call for nuclear testing, and said these are some cases in point towards this aspect.