Since 2014, India’s foreign and military policies have undergone a significant transformation, characterised by a more assertive stance, increased strategic engagements, and a focus on enhancing national security and economic interests. Under Prim...

Since 2014, India’s foreign and military policies have undergone a significant transformation, characterised by a more assertive stance, increased strategic engagements, and a focus on enhancing national security and economic interests. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, India has shifted from a traditionally non-aligned posture to a multi-aligned strategy, balancing relations with major global powers while pursuing an independent foreign policy.The book attempts to comprehensively analyse and explore the key shifts, drivers, and impacts of these changes in India's foreign and military policies.Military modernization represents a comprehensive process aimed at transforming a nation's defence capabilities in response to evolving geopolitical, technological, and security landscapes. This involves the systematic upgrade of military equipment, the adoption of advanced technologies, improvements in the operational readiness of armed forces, and the restructuring of military institutions to align with modern warfare tactics. In India’s case, military modernization is being shaped by a combination of internal needs—such as enhancing border security and countering terrorism—and external pressures, including regional rivalries, especially with China and Pakistan, and the larger strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific region.India’s military modernization involves three core dimensions: hardware upgrades, technological integration, and strategic reforms.This modernization effort also emphasizes the principle of self-reliance in defence production, as evidenced by India's push for indigenous defence manufacturing under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, alongside strategic defence imports. 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. The government is undertaking a series of steps to boost the national R&D base by involving the private sector and start-ups.What is important is the policy shift and pasturing towards India's military and diplomatic outreach that despite the challenges, India has achieved export of defence items worth Rs. 16,000 crore in 2022-23 and this figure is likely to rise to Rs 25,000 crore in 2024-25.The book attempts to outline the policy shift towards defence indigenization, which requires the creation of a sustainable ecosystem that integrates and energizes policymakers, Services, R&D, academia, the defence industry both public and private, and foreign OEMs and global technology leaders. The current geopolitical environment precludes dependency in the mil-tech (military technology) domain on any single external source; hence partnerships based on current and future strategic alignments help mitigate risks. This is a path to realizing the dream of ‘Make in India, Make for the World’.Industry leaders need to focus on innovation, R&D infrastructure, and substantial financial and human capital to develop capabilities and unlock immense potential; the industry needs to focus on R&D, while the government creates the linkages between military and industry to create an ecosystem that nurtures innovation. As the nature of warfare evolves, collaborative research needs to focus on Critical and Emerging Technologies (CETs).I thank all the stakeholders, especially the leaders from MoD, the Military and MEA for their valuable suggestions during writing.  In this endeavour, I also thank past publishers/media houses for the editorials which I have written to substantiate the book. I also immensely KAS for the endeavour and support.