Daijiworld Media Network – Pune

Pune, Sep 21: Rajinder Singh Bhatia, head of Kalyani Group’s defence business, has urged the creation of a robust ecosystem to support over one lakh startups in defence, aerospace and technology.

Speaking at the launch of defence magazine The Blueprint Discourse, Bhatia said India has 1.57 lakh registered startups, but only around 9,000 work in defence and “successful ones can be counted on fingers.” He asked, “Why stop at a few thousand when we can aim for 100,000? India has the talent; we need structures to unleash it.”

He stressed the need for faster defence acquisition cycles to keep pace with rapid technological changes. “If a product is ready in two to five years, acquisition cannot take longer. For fast-evolving tech, 18–24 months is ideal,” he said, citing South Korea and Israel as examples.

Predicting that future warfare will be driven by civilian technology, Bhatia said, “Technology will change faster than you can imagine, and much of it will flow from civilian domains into military applications.”

Bhatia highlighted India’s engineering talent but called for greater funding, mentorship and policy support to help startups scale up. “Building defence capability is a marathon, not a sprint. India has the capacity; now we need to accelerate innovation and manufacturing,” he added.