India's Defence Organisations: DRDO, DPSUs, Shipyards and BRO

The Ecosystem Map: Five Departments, One Ministry

The Ministry of Defence has five departments, each with its own Secretary, listed on our tri-services page. This tree shows which organisation reports into which. It follows the Ministry's Annual Report 2023-24, which places BRO, the NCC, the Coast Guard and MES under the Department of Defence.

• Ministry of DefenceRaksha Mantri: Shri Rajnath Singh · Defence Secretary: Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh
  • Department of DefencePolicy, planning, coordination; the civil and works bodies
    • Border Roads Organisation (BRO)Strategic roads, bridges, tunnels · 1960
    • Military Engineer Services (MES)Construction and works for the three Services
    • Indian Coast Guard and the National Cadet CorpsAdministered by the Ministry through this department
  • Department of Military Affairs (2019)Headed by the CDS · the three Services, HQ IDS, Territorial Army
  • Department of Defence Production (DDP)The industrial arm
    • 16 Defence PSUs9 older companies + 7 formed from the Ordnance Factory Board on 1 Oct 2021
      • Aircraft, electronics, missiles, metals, vehiclesHAL · BEL · BDL · MIDHANI · BEML
      • ShipyardsMDL · GRSE · GSL · HSL
      • The seven OFB successorsMIL · AVNL · AWEIL · TCL · YIL · IOL · GIL
    • Quality assurance and standardsDGQA · DGAQA · Directorate of Standardization
    • Planning, innovation and exhibitionsDirectorate of Planning and Coordination (1964) · Defence Innovation Organisation (iDEX) · Defence Exhibition Organisation (1981)
  • Department of Defence Research and Development (1980)Secretary is also Chairman, DRDO
    • DRDOFormed 1958 · about 41 laboratories + 5 Young Scientist Laboratories
  • Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (2004)Resettlement, pensions and welfare of veterans

The test question is usually "which department?". Remember it as a pair of swaps: DPSUs belong to Defence Production, DRDO belongs to Defence R&D. The Services were placed under the Department of Military Affairs only when it was created in 2019, so older books put them under the Department of Defence.

DRDO: The Research Arm

The Defence Research and Development Organisation was formed in 1958 by amalgamating the Technical Development Establishments of the Army, the Directorate of Technical Development and Production, and the Defence Science Organisation. The separate Department of Defence R&D came in 1980, and its Secretary is also the Chairman of DRDO. The current holder of that post is Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh.

DRDO describes itself as a network of around 41 laboratories and 5 DRDO Young Scientist Laboratories (DYSLs), as of November 2026. Each laboratory owns one technology cluster:

PIB's factsheet of 14 August 2026 lists, among DRDO's 2025-26 results, tests of Agni-4 and Agni-5, the Kusha long-range air-defence missile and a scramjet combustor ground test. The Defence Acquisition Council has given Acceptance of Necessity for over ₹6 lakh crore of DRDO-designed systems built by Indian industry. Range, guidance and test histories are on our missiles page, and the full laboratory-by-laboratory story will sit on the DRDO page.

The economics matters as much as the engineering. DRDO has transferred technology to 134 partner companies, and since 2022-23 25% of the defence R&D budget has been opened to industry, start-ups and academia. The Technology Development Fund gives grants of up to ₹50 crore per project. Our report on the DRDO financial-powers reform shows how procurement rules affect its work.

The Sixteen Defence PSUs

A Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU) is a company owned by the Government and run under the Department of Defence Production. Until 2021 there were nine. On 1 October 2021 seven more were added, which makes sixteen, the number used at the Raksha Mantri's annual DPSU review on 1 September 2026.

The Navratna and Maharatna grades come from the Department of Public Enterprises and set how much a company can invest without asking the Government. They are an Economics topic too, covered in our industry and services notes. HAL moved from Navratna to Maharatna in October 2024.

From Ordnance Factory Board to seven companies

The ordnance factories ran as a Government department under the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). The Union Cabinet decided on 16 June 2021 to corporatise it. The management of its 41 production units passed to the seven new companies on 1 October 2021, the OFB was dissolved, and its headquarters became the Directorate of Ordnance (Coordination and Services). On 15 October 2021, Vijayadashami, the companies were dedicated to the nation; PIB's release of that day mentions an order book above ₹65,000 crore. Our report on the OFB-to-seven-DPSU story follows the staff side; the company-by-company page is the Defence PSUs page.

Shipyards: Four DPSUs and One Outsider

Four of the sixteen are shipyards, all under the Department of Defence Production: Mazagon Dock (Mumbai), Garden Reach (Kolkata), Goa Shipyard and Hindustan Shipyard (Visakhapatnam). HSL was a Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways company until it came under the Defence Ministry in 2010. Cochin Shipyard, which built the carrier INS Vikrant, still sits under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and is not a DPSU.

The ships these yards build are listed on our surface ships page and submarines page.

BRO and the Military Engineer Services

The Border Roads Organisation was born on 7 May 1960 with two projects, Vartak in the east and Beacon in the north. PIB's factsheet of 19 January 2026 says it has been fully under the Ministry of Defence since 2015-16; earlier it was partly under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Its workforce combines the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF), Army engineer officers and civilian labour. It is led by a Director General, a Lieutenant General, at present Lt Gen Harpal Singh.

BRO's roads carry troops and supplies to forward posts. See the BRO page and our report on BRO and strategic infrastructure.

The Military Engineer Services is the Services' own construction and maintenance agency: buildings, runways and other works. It is headed by the Engineer-in-Chief and works for all three Services. It is not the Army's Corps of Engineers.

Other Bodies That Appear in Questions

The corridor numbers show the gap between pledge and spend. By April 2026 the UP corridor had ₹42,057 crore in investment commitments of which ₹4,409 crore was on the ground; Tamil Nadu had ₹32,699 crore committed and ₹6,446 crore realised (PIB factsheet, 14 Aug 2026). The scheme-by-scheme view will sit on the indigenisation and exports page; the Army side is on weapon systems.

The Money: Budget, Production and Exports

Three numbers are easy to mix up. The budget is what the Ministry may spend. Production is the value of defence equipment Indian industry makes. Exports are the part sold abroad. All figures below are from PIB unless stated.

By our arithmetic, not PIB's, capital outlay is about 28% of the 2026-27 budget and DRDO about 3.7%. The Government's stated targets are ₹3 lakh crore in annual production and ₹50,000 crore in exports by 2029. Our report on the record production figure explains how to read the number, and the study notes on the Union Budget and international trade cover the economics. A dedicated defence budget page will carry the capital, revenue and pension split.

Self-reliance in defence is a standard SSB group-discussion theme; practise it with our GD guide.

Guided Tour: Pages in This Section

The services each have their own section: Army, Navy and Air Force, with the tri-services hub above them.

Exam pins

Asked in past papers

The pattern is two-sided: organisation and status questions come from the defence side, and numbers or grades come from Economics.

Practice MCQs (with answers)

1. The Defence Public Sector Undertakings function under the
   1. Department of Defence
   2. Department of Military Affairs
   3. Department of Defence Production
   4. Department of Defence Research and Development
2. Which of the following is NOT one of the seven companies formed from the Ordnance Factory Board?
   1. Munitions India Limited
   2. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
   3. India Optel Limited
   4. Gliders India Limited
3. The Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor has a counterpart in which State?
   1. Tamil Nadu
   2. Gujarat
   3. Maharashtra
   4. Odisha
4. The Border Roads Organisation was raised in
   1. 1948
   2. 1955
   3. 1971
   4. 1960
5. Which of the following shipyards is not a Defence PSU?
   1. Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders
   2. Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers
   3. Cochin Shipyard
   4. Hindustan Shipyard
6. In 2025-26 the private sector's share of India's defence production, as reported by PIB, was about
   1. 24 per cent
   2. 45 per cent
   3. 76 per cent
   4. 62 per cent

Where to Go Next

For the career side, read career in the defence forces. Graduates reach officer training through the CDS course, with the GK paper taught topic by topic and tested weekly; for Class 12, see the NDA batches.