New Delhi

Director General of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Chandrika Kaushik on Tuesday stressed the urgent need for developing indigenous artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for the defence sector, saying India cannot depend on foreign-developed AI models for critical military applications.

Speaking to ANI, Kaushik said that in the defence domain, reliance on external AI systems is not an option. “We need to be very sure about the trustworthiness of the models and the systems which we are adopting. In defence, we can’t afford to depend on AI solutions coming from abroad,” she said.

Highlighting the rapid spread of AI across sectors, Kaushik noted that the technology has already become integral to daily activities, including education, research, presentations and problem-solving. However, she pointed out that most commonly used AI tools and platforms are developed outside India.

She appreciated the efforts of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Government of India in bringing together multiple stakeholders to strengthen the country’s AI ecosystem, describing the ongoing summit as “the way to go” for building trusted, home-grown capabilities.

Outlining DRDO’s initiatives, Kaushik said the organisation has developed two important frameworks. One is the Evaluating Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (ETAI) framework, which focuses on building resilience into AI-enabled systems. The other provides structured guidelines for validation and verification of AI solutions to help developers ensure reliability and safety.

“We have started incorporating AI in almost every solution we are developing, wherever data can be used for analysis,” she said, adding that AI applications are steadily moving closer to operational environments. “AI is now going to the edge — to the battlefield itself. So we have to gear up quickly to integrate AI into the defence domain.”

Kaushik was speaking on the sidelines of the India-AI Impact Summit 2026, which aims to promote dialogue on responsible AI governance, innovation ecosystems, digital public infrastructure, climate-conscious technologies and equitable access to emerging technologies.

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The summit is structured around three core pillars — People, Planet and Progress — and features thematic working groups from the Global North and Global South presenting concrete proposals such as AI Commons, trusted AI tools, shared compute infrastructure and sector-specific AI use cases.