Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary S Krishnan on Thursday, 24 September 2026, proposed a doctrine he termed 'Mutually Assured Disruption' — a strategy designed to reduce India's vulnerability to technology denial and global supply chain shocks while keeping the country plugged into cutting-edge international innovation. The remarks were made at an event organised by the Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI) in New Delhi.

The Core Argument

Krishnan argued that India must develop sufficient domestic capabilities in critical technologies to sustain operations even if access to foreign components or platforms is curtailed. Crucially, he stressed that this does not mean pursuing full self-sufficiency — a goal he described as unrealistic.

Instead, the strategy calls for India to establish a commanding presence in strategically vital segments of global value chains, making itself an indispensable node in key technology ecosystems. The logic: if India is deeply embedded in supply chains that others depend on, any attempt to exclude India becomes mutually costly — hence 'Mutually Assured Disruption.'

Semiconductors as the Strategic Anchor

Krishnan singled out semiconductors as a priority. 'From a strategic perspective, I think having a presence in the semiconductor space is very important. We are already, and we will keep growing as a consumer of these devices. Our per capita incomes are reaching that point of inflection where consumption will rise faster. So, electronics may be an important item of consumption, and this essentially means we need to make enough of these inputs,' he stated.

India's semiconductor ambitions have gathered momentum in recent years, with the government committing significant incentives to attract chip fabrication and design investments. Krishnan's remarks signal that these efforts are now being framed explicitly within a geopolitical resilience calculus, not merely an industrial one.

The Post-COVID Supply Chain Lesson

Krishnan pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as a structural inflection point in how governments and businesses think about supply chain concentration. 'A significant shift has taken place since the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside other global developments, with businesses and governments increasingly recognising the risks of excessive dependence on a single market, country, or source of supply. Rather than concentrating manufacturing solely in the most cost-competitive location, there is now greater emphasis on diversification as a means of building resilience,' he said.

This mirrors a broader global trend: the United States, the European Union, and Japan have all introduced legislation or incentive programmes in recent years aimed at onshoring or 'friend-shoring' critical technology manufacturing. India's framing, however, takes a distinct angle — not withdrawal from globalisation, but strategic embeddedness within it.

What This Means for India's Tech Policy

The 'Mutually Assured Disruption' framing is notable for its candour. It acknowledges that India cannot replicate the full technology value chain domestically, and pivots the conversation toward leverage and influence rather than autarky. Critics may argue, however, that identifying which segments to prioritise — and then actually building competitive depth in them — is a formidable execution challenge that policy rhetoric alone cannot resolve.

Sectors in focus are likely to include semiconductors, critical minerals processing, telecom hardware, defence electronics, and advanced software platforms. The strategy's success will depend on whether India can attract and retain the engineering talent, capital, and industrial ecosystems required to become genuinely indispensable in these verticals. How that translates into concrete programme design and budget allocations remains to be seen.