Ministry
Ministry of Defence
The Ministry of Defence is the Government of India's apex civilian authority over the armed forces. It frames defence policy and administers, through five departments, the three services, defence research and development, defence production and ex-servicemen welfare. It commands the single largest share of the Union Budget of any ministry, which makes it both the guardian of the military and the state's biggest capital purchaser and industrial patron.
Updated
- Headquarters
- South Block, New Delhi
- Departments
- 5 (Defence, Military Affairs, Defence Production, R&D, Ex-Servicemen Welfare)
- Budget (FY2026-27)
- ₹7.85 lakh crore — the largest of any ministry
- Defence exports (FY2025-26)
- ₹38,424 crore, a record
Role
The Ministry of Defence is the civilian apex over India’s military. It sets defence policy and administers, through five departments, the three services; the Department of Military Affairs, created in 2020 and led by the Chief of Defence Staff, which drives the integration of the services into joint structures; the Department of Defence Production, which owns the public-sector defence undertakings and the indigenisation programme; the Department of Defence Research and Development (DRDO); and the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare. The Indian Army, Navy and Air Force all sit under its authority.
Because it holds the single largest slice of the Union Budget of any ministry, the Ministry of Defence is not only the guardian of national security but the state’s biggest capital buyer and industrial patron. Its procurement rules, its indigenisation lists and its export clearances shape an entire domestic defence industry — which is why the live contest around defence self-reliance (Atmanirbharta) runs through this desk.
Desk maintained by IndiaStand editorial cycles. Officeholders are transient; this dossier tracks the institution.
Timeline since 1947
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Ministry of Defence constituted
The ministry took charge of the armed forces of newly independent India, establishing civilian authority over the military.
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Post-war reorganisation
Reverses in the war with China drove a major expansion and restructuring of defence policy, spending and higher-defence organisation.
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Defence production opened to the private sector
The defence-manufacturing sector, previously reserved for the state, was opened to private Indian firms with foreign direct investment capped at 26 per cent.
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One Rank One Pension orders issued for defence pensioners
The ministry issued the OROP implementation orders on 7 November 2015, effective from 1 July 2014, re-fixing past pensioners' pensions on the 2013 retiree average and providing for re-fixation every five years; ₹12,456 crore was allotted in FY2016-17 and ₹10,795.40 crore disbursed as arrears.
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DPP 2016 makes Buy (Indian-IDDM) the top procurement priority
The Defence Procurement Procedure 2016 gave the Buy Indian-Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured category topmost priority for capital acquisition and introduced the industry-funded Make-II route, under which 58 Army, Navy and Air Force projects later received approval in principle.
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Inter-Governmental Agreement signed with France for 36 Rafale fighters
The ministry procured 36 Rafale aircraft in fly-away condition through a government-to-government agreement with France, with supply protocols signed with Dassault Aviation for the aircraft package and MBDA for weapons — a shift away from the collapsed MMRCA tender route. The CAG performance audit tabled on 13 February 2019 found the package price 2.86 per cent below the audit-aligned MMRCA price.
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Strategic Partnership model notified for private-sector platform building
The ministry notified the Strategic Partnership model, under which Indian entities selected competitively tie up with global original equipment manufacturers to obtain technology transfer and build domestic manufacturing infrastructure and supply chains for major platforms.
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Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) launched
The ministry launched iDEX to fund and support startups, MSMEs, individual innovators, R&D institutes and academia developing defence and aerospace technology, opening procurement-adjacent R&D to entities outside the traditional DPSU-DRDO base.
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Chief of Defence Staff and Department of Military Affairs created
A landmark integration reform placed a single-point military adviser and a dedicated fifth department atop the three services.
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Atmanirbhar Bharat push and Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020
The ministry reoriented policy toward self-reliance, raised FDI in defence to 74 per cent, launched the SRIJAN indigenisation portal and issued DAP 2020 with an indigenous-content mandate.
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SRIJAN indigenisation portal opens DPSU import lists to industry
The portal was launched on 14 August 2020 to display previously imported items for indigenisation; by July 2021 it listed 10,940 such items, with Indian industry expressing interest in 2,880 of them, while 1,776 components and spares were indigenised in 2020-21.
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First positive indigenisation list embargoes import of 101 items
The ministry notified 101 items — including artillery guns, assault rifles, corvettes, sonars, transport aircraft, light combat helicopters and radars — on which imports are embargoed beyond stated timelines, converting self-reliance policy into a binding procurement restriction.
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Second positive indigenisation list adds 108 items
The ministry notified a further 108 items under import embargo with indicated timelines, extending the 2020 list and signalling that the embargo mechanism had become a standing instrument rather than a one-off.
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Ordnance Factory Board corporatised into seven defence undertakings
The two-century-old ordnance-factory system was dissolved and reconstituted as seven government-owned corporate entities to make production commercially accountable.
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Agnipath recruitment scheme introduced
A restructured short-service recruitment model for the armed forces, and a significant change to military personnel policy.
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Inter-Services Organisations (Command, Control and Discipline) Act enacted
The Act empowers commanders of tri-service formations to exercise disciplinary and administrative authority over personnel of all three services, unifying a command chain previously fragmented by service-specific law; the ministry describes it as the legal foundation for integrated theatre commands.
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Defence industrial corridors report ₹6,339 crore invested against a ₹20,000 crore target
The ministry told Parliament that the two corridors — six nodes in Uttar Pradesh and five in Tamil Nadu — were set up to attract ₹20,000 crore of investment by 2024-25; 161 MoUs carried potential investment of ₹23,985 crore, but realised investment stood at ₹2,445 crore in UP and ₹3,894 crore in Tamil Nadu.
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Operation Sindoor: tri-service strikes on nine cross-border terror camps
Following the Pahalgam attack in which 26 civilians were killed, the armed forces struck nine camps across the Line of Control and inside Pakistan in a coordinated land, air and maritime operation; the ministry cites the Integrated Command and Control Strategy and the indigenous Akash system in countering the retaliatory drone and UCAV attacks that followed.
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DRDO allocation raised to ₹29,100 crore with a quarter of R&D opened to outside entities
DRDO's budget rose to ₹29,100.25 crore in FY2026-27 from ₹26,816.82 crore, of which ₹17,250.25 crore is capital; following the 2022-23 budget announcement about 25 per cent of the defence R&D budget is open to industry, startups and academia, and 15 DRDO-industry-academia centres of excellence cover 82 research verticals.
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Defence gets ₹7.85 lakh crore in Union Budget 2026-27, the largest ministry allocation
The allocation is 15.19 per cent above FY2025-26 budget estimates and 14.67 per cent of central government expenditure; ₹2.19 lakh crore goes to the services' capital head, ₹1.85 lakh crore to capital acquisition, ₹1.39 lakh crore is reserved for procurement from domestic industry, and defence pensions absorb 21.84 per cent of the total.
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Record self-reliance figures for FY2025-26 released
The ministry reported indigenous defence production of about ₹1.78 lakh crore and record defence exports of ₹38,424 crore, up 62.66 per cent on the previous year.
Frequently asked
- What is Ministry of Defence?
- The Ministry of Defence is the Government of India's apex civilian authority over the armed forces. It frames defence policy and administers, through five departments, the three services, defence research and development, defence production and ex-servicemen welfare. It commands the single largest share of the Union Budget of any ministry, which makes it both the guardian of the military and the state's biggest capital purchaser and industrial patron.
- When was Ministry of Defence established?
- Ministry of Defence was established 1947.
- What does Ministry of Defence do?
- Its remit covers Defence policy and the three armed services (Army, Navy, Air Force), Department of Military Affairs and the Chief of Defence Staff (jointness/integration), Defence research and development (DRDO), Defence production, procurement and the public-sector defence undertakings, Ex-servicemen welfare and defence pensions.
- What is the latest on Ministry of Defence?
- As of 2026-07-06: Record self-reliance figures for FY2025-26 released. The ministry reported indigenous defence production of about ₹1.78 lakh crore and record defence exports of ₹38,424 crore, up 62.66 per cent on the previous year.
Official sources
The government's own pages for this institution — go straight to the primary.
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Canonical MoD portal; verified title "Home | Ministry of Defence". Defaults to Hindi; English tree lives under /en/.
www.mod.gov.in/
- MoD Annual Report archive reports
Official annual report listing (English locale). Resolves with correct title; the report list itself is client-rendered.
www.mod.gov.in/en/documents/annual-report
- Department of Defence Production (DDP) department
Constituent department with its own site; administers the 16 Defence PSUs, indigenisation and export promotion.
www.ddpmod.gov.in/
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The R&D wing of MoD, with its own domain and lab network.
drdo.gov.in/drdo/en/
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Government press-release archive (English pinned). Note: PIB's ministry-wise filter is a JS postback, so there is no stable MoD-only deep link — this is the all-ministry archive.
www.pib.gov.in/allRel.aspx?reg=3&lang=1
- The Army Act, 1950 (India Code) legislation
Bare Act plus rules, regulations, notifications and orders for the principal statute governing the Army.
www.indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/1930
Related briefs
- The Indian Coast Guard: coastal security, maritime enforcement, and fleet expansion 2026-07-06
- India's defence self-reliance (Atmanirbharta): indigenisation, procurement and exports 2026-07-06
- India's defence R&D: DRDO's missile and indigenous-systems programmes 2026-07-06
- India's air power: Rafale, the AMCA programme, and the squadron gap 2026-07-05
- India's naval expansion and its Indian Ocean strategy 2026-07-05
- Operation Sindoor: casualty disclosure becomes a parliamentary dispute 2026-07-03