Algorithms, AI will shape tomorrow’s battles, Rajnath Singh says

India’s battlefield is shifting toward code and machines, defense minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday, calling on startups to build systems that use algorithms, autonomous platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) as the country steps up domestic defense spending and procurement.

Speaking at an interaction with iDEX startups ahead of a national conference at New Delhi’s Vigyan Bhawan, Singh said future wars will be shaped by drones and anti-drone systems, quantum computing and directed-energy weapons.

He urged founders to “think beyond existing solutions” and promised policy support from concept to production.

“The battlefield has changed. The wars of tomorrow will be fought with algorithms, autonomous systems and artificial intelligence,” he said, adding that India witnessed such capabilities in Operation Sindoor.

In a separate development, the Indian Army said on Monday that AI aided planning and targeting for Operation Sindoor, the cross-border counterterror mission carried out in May after the Pahalgam attack.

Speaking to reporters in Delhi, Lt Gen Rajiv Kumar Sahni, Director General of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers and former DG Information Systems, said AI was used for review and intelligence analysis to prioritize resources. 

He also pointed to the Army’s weather tool Anuman as a planning aid alongside satellite tracking and real-time feeds. 

When asked whether AI was used to locate enemy infantry positions, Sahni said the military leveraged “reasonably assured models, satellite tracking systems, and feed which is given in real time” to achieve that objective.

Accounts of the mission’s tech stack include an electronic intelligence collation application and models trained on years of historical data to improve target selection. 

The approach enabled high-confidence strikes, with one officer citing accuracy figures above 90% and plans to field a military large language model in the coming months. 

The army has framed the push as part of a broader shift to faster, data-led decision-making. 

A change in mindset

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Singh said capital acquisitions from domestic sources are on track to rise from ₹74,000 crore in FY22 to ₹1.2 trillion in FY25, describing the shift as “not merely a statistical change but a change in mindset from dependence to confidence.”

The government has reserved at least a quarter of annual procurement for micro and small enterprises, with more than 350 items earmarked exclusively for them, he added.

The minister pressed entrepreneurs to create the country’s first defense unicorn, noting India counts more than 100 billion-dollar startups but none in the sector yet.

He said iDEX, short for Innovations for Defense Excellence, has produced more than 650 winners since its launch in 2018, with prototype procurements worth over ₹3,000 crore, and argued the program has “democratized defense innovation” by linking the needs of the armed forces with engineers and researchers across the country.

The comments underline New Delhi’s push to reduce import dependence and build a domestic supply chain for next-generation systems, from unmanned platforms to electronic warfare and counter-drone tools.

India aims to source ₹1.2 trillion of military hardware domestically in FY25 as part of a broader self-reliance drive, according to remarks carried by PTI.

Officials have paired that ambition with procedural changes meant to give startups clearer demand signals. Singh cited a forthcoming Defense Procurement Manual that will provide assured orders for five years, extendable by another five, alongside ongoing tweaks to the Defense Acquisition Procedure to shorten trials and speed up purchases of innovative systems.

The government has also expanded funding and testing access through the Technology Development Fund and the Defense Testing Infrastructure Scheme, and allowed more self-certification to cut bottlenecks for smaller firms.

The iDEX platform, run by the Department of Defense Production, has become the main funnel for early-stage ideas, awarding challenges across surveillance, electronic systems and soldier support, among others.

Singh said award-winning innovators have begun to see operational uptake, pointing to startups recognized for their role in Operation Sindoor and to Indian firms showcasing systems at the Dubai Airshow this year.

While details of fielded systems were not disclosed, the minister framed the pipeline as evidence that home-grown technologies can move from trial to deployment.

The push comes as militaries worldwide invest in autonomy, counter-UAS, AI-enabled decision support and resilient networks.

For India, recent approvals by the Defense Acquisition Council for indigenous platforms and sensors have added to the order book for local suppliers, while exports have climbed to more than ₹23,000 crore in the last financial year, government data show.

Singh cast the shift to domestic sourcing as both strategic hedge and economic stimulus, arguing that a stronger private-sector base in defense manufacturing would attract investment, widen the skills pool and create employment.

He said the Ministry of Defense is building alliances with the Department of Science and Technology, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade and financial institutions to provide “end-to-end support” so that “every idea gets the opportunity to grow into a viable product” and “every prototype gets the chance to scale into production.”

At Tuesday’s event, startups displayed products developed under iDEX and ADITI as officials convened panels on scaling, bridging innovation and production, and accelerating R&D collaboration.

Senior defense leadership, including the Chief of Defense Staff and the heads of DRDO and Defence Production, attended the sessions, underscoring the political backing behind the program.