At the Army Service Corps Centre and College (ASCCC), Bengaluru, Shantanu Roy, CMD, BEML LTD., delivered a thought-provoking address as Guest Speaker at the seminar “Atmanirbharta in Defence: Promoting Indigenization in the Indian Defence Industry”, on “Integrating Innovation Ecosystem for National Defence – Building Indigenous Technology for Next-Gen Warfare.”

Roy emphasised that India must not merely prepare for the next generation of warfare, but aspire to help define it. While future conflicts will continue to depend on the courage of soldiers, sailors and air warriors, technology will increasingly determine how effectively that courage can be employed.

India, he noted, has an extraordinary opportunity to emerge as a global defence technology leader, leveraging its young engineering workforce, scientific talent, defence start-up ecosystem and growing capabilities in AI, advanced composites, semiconductors and quantum technologies.

Calling for a shift from collaboration to co-creation, Shri Roy stressed the need to bring users, scientists, engineers and manufacturers together from the earliest stages of technology development, particularly as India moves towards integrated theatre commands and multi-domain operations.

Concluding his address, he outlined a clear pathway towards self-reliance and global technology leadership:

 Establish a long-term National Defence Technology Vision 2045, jointly shaped by the Armed Forces, DRDO, industry, academia and policymakers.

Accelerate the journey from innovation to induction, enabling promising technologies to move faster through development, testing, certification and deployment.

 Sustain investment in future technologies and high-end engineering talent capable of designing the next generation of defence systems.

Building future military capability is not the responsibility of one institution—it is a shared national mission. The journey ahead is from self-reliance to global technology leadership.