According to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), India’s higher education system has nearly 30 million students enrolled across roughly 50,000 higher education institutions. However, there is a gap between ambition and capability in advanced defence research and systems engineering. These two facts are rarely examined together within higher education and capability planning. Policy assessment of India’s higher education system has identified critical execution gaps in academic programmes, research exposure, and national capabilities priorities. The question, then, is not whether India can afford early defence exposure in STEM education.

Source: The Hindu April 05, 2026 15:23 UTC