Startups are emerging as the new driving force of India’s defence innovation ecosystem, said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday (October 7, 2025), while calling upon young entrepreneurs to set new benchmarks and create India’s first defence unicorn.
“India today has more than 100 unicorns, but none in the defence sector. Let the first defence unicorn of India emerge from among you — it will be a matter of pride for the entire nation,” he said.
A unicorn is a privately-held startup company with a valuation of $1 billion or more.
Addressing innovators during ‘Raksha Navachar Samvaad: Interaction with iDEX Startups’ at Vigyan Bhawan, ahead of the National Defence Innovation Conference, the Defence Minister said the wars of tomorrow will be fought with “algorithms, autonomous systems and artificial intelligence”.
He noted that drones, anti-drone systems, quantum computing and directed-energy weapons will define the future battlefield. “We have seen such a demo in Operation Sindoor as well,” he added, referring to India’s recent successful military operation against Pakistan that highlighted indigenous technologies in action.
