New Delhi, Oct. 1 -- India's defence self-reliance cannot stop at manufacturing military equipment domestically and must extend to designing, developing and owning the technology behind those systems, according to R Muralidharan, Chief Technology Officer of Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) and Professor of Practice at IIT Tirupati.

"Atmanirbhar Bharat does not only mean Make in India. It also should include Create in India. Create means conceive and design in India," Muralidharan told LiveMint in an exclusive interview.

He said India has developed the manufacturing capabilities needed to produce several defence systems, but continues to face a gap in the know-how and know-why needed to modify, upgrade and adapt those systems to Indian r...