The Raksha Mantri conducted the annual performance review of 16 Defence Public Sector Undertakings in New Delhi on 1 September 2026, briefed by the Secretary (Defence Production) and the Chairmen and Managing Directors of the DPSUs, with the Raksha Rajya Mantri present.
Two figures came out of it, and the relationship between them is more instructive than either alone:
| Measure | 2025-26 |
|---|---|
| Total defence production | approx. ₹1.8 lakh crore |
| Of which, DPSUs | ₹1.29 lakh crore |
| Balance (other PSUs and private sector) | approx. ₹51,000 crore |
Do the arithmetic that the release leaves to you. DPSUs account for roughly 72% of India's defence production; everything else, including the entire private sector, makes up the remaining 28%. Any answer on India's defence industrial base that does not carry that ratio is incomplete, and the number is the honest counterweight to the language of a private-sector-led transformation. The transformation is real; it is also, so far, the minority share.
Why there are exactly sixteen
The number 16 has a date attached, and it is one of the most reliably asked defence-economy facts.
Until 2021 there were nine DPSUs: Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bharat Electronics Limited, Bharat Earth Movers Limited, Bharat Dynamics Limited, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, Goa Shipyard Limited, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders, Mishra Dhatu Nigam and Hindustan Shipyard Limited.
On 1 October 2021, the Ordnance Factory Board — a departmental organisation running the ordnance factories directly under the Ministry of Defence since colonial times — was dissolved and corporatised into seven new DPSUs:
- Munitions India Limited — ammunition and explosives
- Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited — armoured platforms
- Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited — weapons and equipment
- Troop Comforts Limited — clothing and general stores
- Yantra India Limited — ordnance and allied components
- India Optel Limited — optoelectronics
- Gliders India Limited — parachutes
9 + 7 = 16. The logic of corporatisation was to convert a departmental board, which could not raise capital, hold a balance sheet or be judged on profit, into companies that can. Whether that has worked is a policy argument; that it happened, and when, is a fact question.
Note also that DPSUs sit under the Department of Defence Production, one of the departments of the Ministry of Defence, while DRDO sits under the Department of Defence Research and Development. Options routinely swap them.
What the review asked for, and why each ask is a concept
The direction to the DPSUs was specific, and each item points at a known weakness worth understanding rather than memorising.
Timely delivery. Slippage on delivery schedules is the standing criticism of Indian defence manufacture, and it is what forces emergency procurement at higher cost.
Reducing import dependence. The instruments here are the positive indigenisation lists issued by the Ministry of Defence, which bar the import of listed items after a stated date, and the domestic-content requirements built into the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020, which places Buy (Indian-IDDM) — indigenously designed, developed and manufactured — at the top of the acquisition preference order. IDDM is the highest category; know what the letters stand for.
Turning R&D spending into technology leadership. The Raksha Mantri's formulation was that R&D success is measured not by the amount spent but by new technologies, intellectual property, prototypes and operational products. That is an output-versus-input distinction, and it is exactly the kind of framing that makes a good interview answer.
Exports, capex, and support to start-ups and MSMEs. The start-up channel here is iDEX — Innovations for Defence Excellence — which funds start-ups and MSMEs against service-defined problem statements. Vendor development runs additionally through the SRIJAN indigenisation portal, and manufacturing is concentrated through the two Defence Industrial Corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
The argument underneath: why production capacity is a security question
The most quotable line from the review was that DPSU progress is not merely an economic or industrial necessity but a national security imperative, because recent global conflicts have shown how much depends on assured supply chains, surge capacity, critical spares, rapid repair capability and the ability to sustain production through a prolonged conflict.
Unpack that, because it is the analytical core.
A peacetime defence industry is judged on unit cost and delivery schedule. A wartime one is judged on how fast output can be multiplied and how long it can be held there. Those are different capabilities. Holding idle capacity, second-source suppliers and spares inventory is inefficient by peacetime accounting and essential by wartime accounting. Extended conventional conflicts elsewhere in the 2020s made the point at scale: stockpiles of artillery ammunition drew down faster than industry could replace them, and the constraint turned out to be industrial, not financial or doctrinal.
So the case for domestic production is not primarily about saving foreign exchange. It is about not having a supplier who can decline, delay or be interdicted at the moment of maximum need. That sentence is the one to carry into an SSB interview or a written answer on self-reliance.
🔑 Revision block
- 1 September 2026: Raksha Mantri's annual performance review of 16 DPSUs, New Delhi.
- 2025-26 defence production ≈ ₹1.8 lakh crore; DPSUs ₹1.29 lakh crore — about 72%; the balance of roughly ₹51,000 crore is other PSUs and private industry.
- 9 DPSUs before 2021: HAL, BEL, BEML, BDL, GRSE, Goa Shipyard, Mazagon Dock, MIDHANI, Hindustan Shipyard.
- OFB corporatised on 1 October 2021 into 7 new DPSUs — MIL, AVNL, AWE India, Troop Comforts, Yantra India, India Optel, Gliders India. 9 + 7 = 16.
- DPSUs → Department of Defence Production. DRDO → Department of Defence R&D. Do not swap.
- DAP 2020 preference order tops out at Buy (Indian-IDDM) — Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured.
- iDEX funds start-ups and MSMEs; SRIJAN is the indigenisation portal; Defence Industrial Corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
- R&D to be judged on technologies, IP, prototypes and operational products, not on spend.
- Security logic: assured supply chains, surge capacity, critical spares, rapid repair, sustained production.
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. The number of DPSUs after the OFB corporatisation is: (a) 9 (b) 12 (c) 16 (d) 18 → (c).
Q2. The Ordnance Factory Board was corporatised with effect from: (a) 1 April 2020 (b) 1 October 2021 (c) 1 January 2022 (d) 1 April 2022 → (b).
Q3. How many new DPSUs were created out of the OFB? (a) five (b) six (c) seven (d) nine → (c).
Q4. Munitions India Limited specialises in: (a) parachutes (b) optoelectronics (c) ammunition and explosives (d) armoured vehicles → (c).
Q5. Gliders India Limited manufactures: (a) trainer aircraft (b) parachutes (c) unmanned gliders (d) sailplanes → (b) — the name is misleading by design in an option set.
Q6. DPSUs function under which department of the Ministry of Defence? (a) Department of Defence (b) Department of Defence Production (c) Department of Defence R&D (d) Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare → (b).
Q7. In DAP 2020, IDDM stands for: (a) Indian Defence Design and Manufacture (b) Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured (c) Indian Domestic Defence Manufacturing (d) Integrated Defence Development Model → (b).
Q8. Approximately what share of 2025-26 defence production came from DPSUs? (a) 50% (b) 60% (c) 72% (d) 90% → (c) — ₹1.29 lakh crore of about ₹1.8 lakh crore.
Q9. iDEX is a scheme to: (a) export defence equipment (b) fund start-ups and MSMEs for defence innovation (c) modernise ordnance factories (d) manage defence land → (b).
Q10. India's Defence Industrial Corridors are located in: (a) Maharashtra and Gujarat (b) Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu (c) Karnataka and Telangana (d) Odisha and Jharkhand → (b).
Q11. Which of the following was not among the nine pre-2021 DPSUs? (a) MIDHANI (b) Goa Shipyard Limited (c) Yantra India Limited (d) Bharat Dynamics Limited → (c) — created from the OFB in 2021.
Q12. According to the review, R&D success should be measured by: (a) budget allocated (b) technologies, IP, prototypes and operational products (c) number of scientists (d) patents filed abroad → (b).
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
Defence-production questions run in four shapes. The count item — how many DPSUs, and how the OFB corporatisation changed the number; the 9-to-16 arithmetic is the discriminator. The mapping item — which DPSU makes what, or which department a body reports to, with DRDO-under-Defence-Production the standard planted error. The acronym item — IDDM, iDEX, SRIJAN, DAP expanded correctly. The figure item — the year's production number, usually paired with the DPSU share.
The fresh 2026 hook is the ₹1.8 lakh crore / ₹1.29 lakh crore pair, which is unusually well suited to a percentage question because the division is clean. A statement pair on the OFB corporatisation and departmental control is the likeliest single item, with the department half planted false. As always, we describe the recurring pattern, not any exact past question.
Preparing for the NDA? Defence-economy questions reward a handful of fixed numbers and one clean org chart — the DPSU count, the corporatisation date, and which department owns what. Build the base with our NDA general knowledge notes, follow the daily NDA current affairs, and train with our ex-officer faculty in the upcoming Cavalier courses in Delhi.
✍️ Written by Col D.N. Sharma — Defence studies faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk. The Cavalier, founded by ex-Army officers, has trained NDA/CDS/SSB aspirants since 2001 (Facebook · YouTube).
Source: PIB / Ministry of Defence, 1 September 2026. Institutional and scheme details cross-verified with independent sources.