The Chief Minister's Office of Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, 17 June 2026, credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's twelve years in office with a fundamental transformation of India's national security landscape, pointing to record defence budgets, surging exports, and landmark indigenous platforms as evidence of a more self-reliant nation.

Context

The post, shared under the hashtags #12YearsOfSeva and #12YearsOfSurakshitBharat ('12 Years of a Secure India'), frames the ruling dispensation's defence record as a pillar of its decade-plus governance narrative. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav's office tagged both PMO India and the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Defence, signalling a coordinated messaging effort across central and state government handles. The post specifically names three milestones — INS Vikrant, INS Arighat, and Mission Shakti — as emblems of indigenous capability.

Policy Backdrop

India's push for defence self-reliance predates but accelerated sharply under the current government. The Make in India initiative, launched in September 2014, designated defence manufacturing a priority sector to reduce the country's historically high dependence on imported platforms and systems. Successive revisions to the Defence Procurement Procedure, beginning in 2016, mandated progressively higher indigenous content in capital acquisitions. The Atmanirbhar Bharat announcement of May 2020 went further, introducing a negative import list for defence items and setting explicit targets for domestic production value and export volumes. Together, these policies shifted the procurement culture from licence-based assembly toward full indigenous design and production of complex systems. INS Vikrant, commissioned in September 2022, stands as the most visible symbol of that shift — India's first domestically designed and built aircraft carrier. INS Arighat, the country's second nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, deepened the sea-based leg of India's nuclear triad. Mission Shakti, conducted in March 2019, demonstrated an anti-satellite capability and placed India among a small group of nations with proven space-warfare assets.

Stakeholders and Impact

The beneficiaries of this policy arc span the three armed services, domestic defence public sector undertakings, and a growing private-sector ecosystem that now contributes to platforms ranging from artillery guns to light combat aircraft. Defence exports — once negligible — have grown substantially, with friendly nations receiving Indian-made equipment and systems. Parliamentary oversight bodies and opposition parties have, in separate forums, questioned the pace of induction and the adequacy of budget allocations for modernisation, keeping the debate active even as the government highlights achievements. Domestic manufacturers, both public and private, have seen order books expand as the negative import list widened the addressable market for indigenous producers.

What's Next

Attention in policy circles is turning to the next full defence budget cycle and any fresh additions to the negative import list. Technology roadmaps for next-generation submarine programmes, advanced fighter aircraft, and space-based surveillance systems are expected to define the indigenisation agenda for the remainder of this decade. The Madhya Pradesh government's amplification of the central defence narrative also signals that state-level political communication will continue to tie local governance messaging to national security milestones as the ruling party consolidates its '12 Years of Seva' campaign ahead of future electoral cycles.