Defence & Strategic Affairs is a broad concept encompassing the policies, institutions, and mechanisms a nation employs to safeguard its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national interests against external and internal threats. It is managed primarily by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which was formed on August 15, 1947, to provide the policy framework and resources to the Indian Armed Forces. The MoD's role is to coordinate and supervise all government functions related to national security and the armed forces.
The apex advisory body for this concept is the National Security Council (NSC), an executive government body established on November 19, 1998, by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The NSC was created following India's nuclear tests to address the lack of an integrated intelligence and national security architecture, which had previously been managed by the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. The NSC, headed by the Prime Minister, operates through a three-tiered structure: the Strategic Policy Group, the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB), and the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), with the National Security Advisor (NSA) serving as its secretary. The NSC provides holistic assessments across military, internal security, economic, and technological domains.
A key mechanism is the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP), the official rulebook governing how India procures defence equipment. The DAP was preceded by the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), first initiated in 2002 to streamline military hardware procurement. The current framework, DAP 2020, prioritizes the Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-Reliant India) initiative by promoting indigenous design and manufacturing. The MoD is currently reviewing DAP 2020, with a draft DAP 2026 released in February 2026, which aims to accelerate acquisition timelines, increase the Indigenous Content (IC) requirement to at least 60% in key categories, and reduce the number of procurement categories from five to four. This reform, dubbed 'Defence Reform 2.0,' focuses on integrating next-generation technologies and boosting the private sector's role in defence production. Related institutions include the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), established in 2019 to enhance jointness among the armed forces, and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which leads indigenous military science and innovation.