NEW DELHI, May 13 -- India is on course to become a fully integrated military force capable of projecting power across the vast Indo-Pacific region by 2047, when the country marks its Independence centenary, defence secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said on Tuesday. The national defence shield under Mission Sudarshan Chakra will be operational in the 2030s, giving the country an impenetrable, layered missile defence system to protect its critical strategic and civilian assets, the defence secretary said. "We have just released our Defence Forces Vision 2047 (a roadmap for a future-ready Indian military), which rests on the vision of transitioning our military into a technologically advanced, fully integrated and multi-domain force. This is going to go through a transition process up to 2030, followed by a consolidation period from 2030 to 2040 during which we hope to see the maturation of Mission Sudarshan Chakra.and, ultimately, from 2040 the era of excellence when we become a fully integrated, self-reliant, all-domain military force capable of projecting power across the Indo-Pacific and beyond," Singh said at the CII Annual Business Summit 2026. In March, India unveiled Defence Forces Vision 2047 to transform its military into a world-class force by 2047 through a series of measures including wide-ranging strategic reforms, capability enhancements and organisational changes. The goals include creating a drone force, a data force, a defence geospatial agency, a space command, a cyber-command, a cognitive warfare action force and a national defence shield under Mission Sudarshan Chakra. In his address, Singh also discussed the challenges. While India is on the growth trajectory to become a $30 trillion economy by 2047, its vulnerabilities will also expand along with its economic footprint, he said. "Our supply chains, sea lines of communication, and our digital infrastructure will span the globe but they will also be vulnerable to threats.There is a shift happening where societies are becoming deeply interconnected yet vulnerable to cognitive warfare," Singh added....