Emphasising the need to strengthen India’s military and national security apparatus amid hi-tech warfare and threats, Lt Gen Raj Shukla (retd) said that civil-military fusion has become imperative.
A discussion on Lt Gen Shukla’s book ‘Civil Military Fusion as a Metric of National Power and Comprehensive Security’ was held at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Sector 19, on Saturday. The book was released in October 2025 by defence minister Rajnath Singh.
In his book, Lt Gen Shukla argues that civil military fusion (CMF) is a strategic imperative for India’s national security. In a conversation with Lt Gen KJ Singh (retd), he explained how integrating the military with civilian sectors – like industry, academia, startups, and diplomacy – drives innovation, indigenisation, talent retention, and technological self-reliance against hybrid warfare. Lt Gen Shukla said that innovative solutions and advanced technologies developed by startups must be tapped into, citing examples of global entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Alex Karp, whose technologies are playing an important role in modern warfare, including in the Ukraine conflict. Explaining China’s rise, Lt Gen Shukla said the country’s rapid technological and military ascendancy was a direct outcome of civil-military fusion. He noted that while China’s civil manufacturing capacity was half that of the USA in 2002, it had grown to twice that of the USA by 2022, making its military-industrial complex significantly more efficient. Without enlargement of the civil manufacturing capacities, military industrial complexes cannot grow. He said India’s post-Independence mistake was allowing civil, military, academic and private sectors to function separately. Stressing that coordination alone is insufficient, he said these sectors must operate in a conjoined manner, for instance, artificial intelligence has both civilian and national security implications.
He also explained that civil-military fusion lies at the heart of India’s civilisational wisdom and that it is time to exercise the principles prudently, adding that India’s rise as a global power will depend not only on its military strength but also on how seamlessly its civil, industrial, scientific, and strategic ecosystems work together. “Civil-military fusion redefines our national power matrix by fostering synergy among soldiers, scientists, and entrepreneurs to achieve comprehensive security,” he said. The session was attended by former Army chief Gen VP Malik (retd), former Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba (retd), and several military veterans. The discussion was jointly hosted by the Chandigarh Citizens Foundation and Gyan Setu Think Tank.
