India, April 26 -- In traditional military thinking, a nation's first line of defence is defined by its soldiers at the border. In today's geopolitical reality, that definition has fundamentally changed. The true first line of defence lies much deeper, within a nation's factories, laboratories, and industrial ecosystems. For India, indigenous defence manufacturing is no longer an economic aspiration; it is a strategic imperative.

Modern warfare is as much about endurance as it is about firepower. Nations that rely heavily on foreign defence suppliers inherently expose themselves to what may be called a "sovereignty gap", a vulnerability where military readiness becomes contingent on external political decisions. History has shown that su...