India’s arms industry passed a milestone in January with the unveiling of the country’s first intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance drone, which was made by the defence arm of the Adani conglomerate in a joint venture with Israeli military producer Elbit. 

The Drishti-10 Starliner is named after the Hindi word for “vision”, and India has a lot to keep its eye on — its land and maritime borders with 11 nations stretch many thousands of kilometres and include a disputed frontier with arch-rival China over which the Asian giants have repeatedly clashed.

But India remains the world’s biggest arms importer, forced to shop overseas even for basic equipment such as assault rifles — something New Delhi is pushing the private sector to help address after decades in which state-run groups have struggled to build a world-class defence industry.