🛡️ Security & DefenceMAINS · GS3.20 · GS3.19

The Coast Guard is told to stop being a buyer and start being a builder

At the 43rd Commanders' Conference the Raksha Rajya Mantri asked the ICG to become a co-creator of technology with startups, industry and DRDO, and redefined Aatmanirbharta as solving Indian problems rather than buying Indian products.

What happened

The 43rd Indian Coast Guard Commanders' Conference commenced in New Delhi on 17 September 2026, a three-day meeting.
Raksha Rajya Mantri Sanjay Seth interacted with DG ICG Paramesh Sivamani and the Commanders on national and maritime security.
He called on the ICG to be not only a user but a co-creator of technology, working with startups, industry, DRDO and research institutions.
"Aatmanirbharta is not merely about buying Indian; it is about developing solutions for Indian challenges," he said, invoking Make in India, Make for the World.
Capability was placed across the full spectrum - littoral and green waters to open oceans and blue waters - in line with MAHASAGAR.

For Prelims

MAHASAGAR: Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions - the current formulation of India's maritime vision, the successor framing to SAGAR.
Indian Coast Guard: an armed force of the Union under the Ministry of Defence, raised under the Coast Guard Act, 1978; DG Paramesh Sivamani heads it.
Commanders' Conference: the 43rd edition, an annual review of operational preparedness, logistics, HR, training and administration.
Green, blue and littoral waters: the operating bands named - littoral and green (coastal and near seas) through to blue water (open ocean), the full spectrum the Minister set as the requirement.
HADR: Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief - the ICG role linked to the same capability base as search and rescue, medical evacuation and pollution control.
Named technology set: networks, sensors, software, data, AI, autonomous systems, cyber and space-based technologies.
Maritime domain awareness: satellite-enabled MDA, long-endurance surveillance and secure communications were listed as required capabilities.
Inter-service interaction: Commanders meet CDS General N. S. Raja Subramani and Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Krishna Swaminathan.

For UPSC: Useful for the doctrinal shift it states rather than any capability it announces. Use it on defence indigenisation beyond procurement, on the Coast Guard's dual security and HADR mandate, and on MAHASAGAR as the current label for India's maritime neighbourhood policy.

What it is NOT: The release announces no acquisition, no budget, no vessel or aircraft number and no timeline. It gives no figure for ICG fleet strength, no count of the startups or DRDO projects it urges partnership with, and no instance of a technology the force has co-created. Every requirement it lists - unmanned systems, underwater technologies, satellite-enabled domain awareness - is stated as a need, not as a programme with sanction behind it.

For Mains

Syllabus: GS3.20 · GS3.19 · Linkage L2

Anchor

Indigenisation is usually measured by what a force buys at home. The Raksha Rajya Mantri told the Coast Guard to be measured by what it helps design: "Aatmanirbharta is not merely about buying Indian; it is about developing solutions for Indian challenges." That moves the test from the procurement file to the requirement itself.

Position

A user states a specification and waits; a co-creator sits with the startup, DRDO laboratory or institution while the specification is written. For a force whose problems are peculiarly Indian - a 7,500 km coastline, monsoon sea states, dense fishing traffic - imported requirements tend to arrive as imported solutions.

Substantiation (data)

The capability list is specific even where the commitments are not: networks, sensors, software, data, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cyber and space-based technologies, plus underwater technologies, unmanned systems, long-endurance surveillance and satellite-enabled maritime domain awareness across littoral, green and blue waters.

Exemplification

HADR is the illustration the Minister chose, and it is well chosen. A long-endurance surveillance aircraft bought for interdiction is the same aircraft that finds a drifting fishing boat, and pollution-response capability sits on the same hulls. Dual-use is not a justification added afterwards but a property of the platform.

Problematisation

Nothing here is funded. The conference announced no acquisition, no sanction and no date, and a ministerial exhortation to co-create carries weight only if the Coast Guard is given development budget and the authority to carry technical risk. The release says nothing about either.

Conclusion

Deploy this as doctrine rather than as capability. MAHASAGAR spelt out in full, the user-to-co-creator formulation and the full-spectrum framing are quotable; the force's actual strength, fleet and budget are not in this release and should be sourced elsewhere before being asserted.

Deploys into: Maritime security and coastal defence · Defence indigenisation beyond procurement · HADR and the dual-use character of naval capability · MAHASAGAR and the maritime neighbourhood

Ministry of Defence · 2026-09-17 · PRID 2311623 · PIB source ↗