‘Make in India, not just Make in India’: TASL CTO Murlidharan on the next step in defense self-sufficiency | Exclusive | Today’s news

According to R Muralidharan, chief technology officer of Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) and professor of practice at IIT Tirupati, India’s defense self-sufficiency cannot stop at domestic production of military equipment and must extend to designing, developing and owning the technology behind these systems.

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

He said India has developed the manufacturing capabilities required to manufacture several defense systems, but continues to face gaps in know-how and know-how required to modify, modernize and adapt these systems to Indian requirements.

“So today we have the manufacturing technology to make the systems as they are. But we don’t have the know-how and the know-how to upgrade it, to adapt it to Indian requirements. So that’s a big gap,” he said.

“We have to start designing from scratch with the know-how and know-why to economically upgrade from time to time and achieve self-sufficiency,” said Muralidharan.

“It is imperative that we design things in India, then make them, not just make them,” he added.

India’s Biggest Technology Gap: Chips

Muralidharan said the biggest remaining technology gap in India is in high-end hardware, especially the chips and sensors needed to build sophisticated home appliances.

“Today, the only technology gap is high-end hardware chips. We don’t have the chips and sensors that are necessary to build our own device,” he said.

“To date, we are very short of hardware chips and critical raw materials. Otherwise, we have talent, design skills, software expertise, team, etc.”

He said that defense technologies should not be viewed only through a software lens, with hardware and materials forming an equally important part of technological sovereignty.

“The technology is not just in the software or embedding software, which is important, but equally important are the critical materials and chips,” Muralidharan said.

From licensed production to IP ownership

Another challenge for the Indian defense industry is to move beyond licensed manufacturing and build intellectual property domestically, he said.

“My personal view is that private industry, except for a few, does not invest in intellectual property,” Muralidharan said.

“They are engaged in licensed manufacturing. And the people doing IP are very few private industries and DRDO in defense.”

However, he described licensed production as a possible first step towards deeper technological capacity.

“Many of them are also importing licenses and manufacturing, which can be the first step. We will slowly do it ourselves. So one step at a time is good,” he said.

Muralidharan said TASL is focused on developing its own capabilities through continuous investment in research and development.

“Our (TASL) strength is R&D. We invest in R&D, develop our own solutions, collaborate with DRDO and evolve. We are completely indigenous,” he said.

“No technology transfers for the core systems we do, except for a few,” he added.

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“Our DNA is in research and development. We invest heavily not only now, but over the past 40 years.”

Why sovereign AI needs Indian data

Muralidharan also argued that India’s defense-AI strategy should focus not only on developing large language models, but also on specialized, sovereign models trained on high-quality Indian data.

“We don’t have many LLMs of our own yet, but we are generating them. We should also develop our own SLMs. We can call it models of sovereign languages ​​or models in small languages,” he said.

“It’s our own data that has to be used to train the models we need to deploy,” Muralidharan said.

“High-quality, application-specific local data is essential for training models to perform.”

“So it is mandatory for India to develop its own AI solutions and embed or embed them in our applications, which we are doing in a big way without talking much about it,” he added.

Foreign chips and the ‘kill switch’ question

Muralidharan said the reliance on foreign-made chips not only creates a supply chain vulnerability, but also creates a security issue for critical systems.

“Because of supply chain vulnerabilities, you don’t get the chips. Second, when you buy a chip, how can we be sure it’s a safe secure chip?” he said.

“How can one check if it has a backdoor or switches?”

He said India’s dependence on foreign chips goes beyond defense platforms to communications.

“Today in India, every communication is through a foreign chip, including your mobile phone,” Muralidharan said.

“We don’t have a sovereign communication chip, and for our country to be truly sovereign, we need to have our own trusted chips that can communicate securely.”

Defense exports could drive private research and development

Muralidharan said growing private sector interest in defense exports could also help sustain investment in domestic technology and intellectual property.

“The private sector is very interested in exports. That is where they can get the full return on large investments,” he said.

“Today we export a lot, not only DPSU, but also a number of private companies. The export exceeds the expectations of the Ministry of Defense.”

From globalization to localization

The shift toward self-sufficiency is also driven by growing concern about vulnerable global supply chains, he said.

“Earlier it was globalization. Now there is localization. Every country wants to be self-sufficient. And that is exactly what India is doing,” Muralidharan said.

He pointed to government initiatives, including quantum, AI and materials missions, as part of a broader push for technological self-sufficiency.

“Supply chain vulnerabilities can only be eliminated through self-reliance.”

‘All the things in the house’

Muralidharan emphasized that true defense self-reliance ultimately requires an ecosystem in which India can design, manufacture, upgrade and secure critical technologies with minimal external dependency.

“So if a country is to be truly self-sufficient, it has to have all the things inside, very minimally outside,” he said.

“Slowly and gradually every country is realizing this and globalization is gone; it’s local now. Local design, manufacturing and everything else. Fortunately, we’re moving towards that.”

“Government policy is aligned with that and private, public and all industries are gearing up for it as well and we have the right talent. We just need capital and motivation.”