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India's first 10-year defence diplomacy roadmap for 2026-2036, built on strategic partnerships, capacity building, indigenous defence exports and maritime security.
RAKSHA is India's first consolidated policy document on defence diplomacy - a ten-year strategic roadmap covering 2026 to 2036 for how India will build defence partnerships, run military cooperation and push indigenous defence exports abroad. It was released by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on 3 September 2026, at Kartavya Bhawan, and was prepared by the Ministry of Defence in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs. Its central claim is a change of status rather than a change of activity: defence diplomacy, until now a supporting instrument of foreign policy, is formally elevated to a core operational pillar of it, with military cooperation, diplomatic coordination, industrial engagement and maritime action treated as one integrated effort rather than four separate ones. RAKSHA is the title the Ministry gave the document; no official expansion of the word as an acronym has been published, and 'raksha' is simply the Hindi word for protection or defence, already used in titles such as Raksha Mantri and Raksha Mantralaya. Do not invent a full form for it in an answer.
Type: PolicyFOUR PILLARS - Strategic Partnerships: deepening bilateral and multilateral security cooperation with friendly nations, moving relationships from episodic contact to structured, dialogue-backed partnerships
FOUR PILLARS - Capacity Building: joint military exercises, training programmes for partner personnel, and sharing of best practices, so that partner militaries grow familiar with Indian systems and methods
FOUR PILLARS - Indigenous Defence Exports: using the scale built under Aatmanirbhar Bharat to market Make-in-India platforms abroad and position India as a reliable, technology-capable global defence manufacturing hub rather than only a buyer
FOUR PILLARS - Maritime Security: consolidating India's declared role as Net Security Provider and First Responder in the Indian Ocean Region, and defending a rules-based maritime order and freedom of navigation
A TEN-YEAR HORIZON, 2026-2036 - this is what makes the document unusual. Indian defence cooperation has historically been reactive and bilateral; RAKSHA sets a decade-long, whole-of-government timeline against which engagements can be planned and assessed
WHOLE-OF-GOVERNMENT DRAFTING - authored by the Ministry of Defence with the Ministry of External Affairs, the institutional signal that defence cooperation and foreign policy are to be run off one plan
EXPORT-LED, NOT ONLY GOODWILL-LED - defence diplomacy is tied to industrial outcomes. The offer to a partner is Indian equipment together with maintenance, training and support, which builds long-term relationships and revenue at the same time
A FRAMEWORK DOCUMENT, NOT A LAW OR A TREATY - RAKSHA creates no legal obligation and allots no budget of its own. It sets direction and priorities; implementation runs through existing machinery such as defence attaches, defence ministers' dialogues and joint working groups
Frequency: New in September 2026 and therefore a live Prelims one-liner and a ready Mains GS-2 hook; defence diplomacy and defence exports as a theme recur regularly in UPSC Mains
RAKSHA sits at the end of a decade in which India steadily converted maritime vision statements into institutional commitments, and grew an import-dependent defence sector into one with something to sell. The doctrinal line runs through the sea; RAKSHA is the defence-cooperation instrument attached to it.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces SAGAR - Security and Growth for All in the Region - in Mauritius, India's Indian Ocean neighbourhood doctrine
India sets out its Indo-Pacific vision, widening the maritime frame beyond the Indian Ocean
India expands its defence attache network, assigning roughly 15-16 new attaches to countries including Poland, the Philippines, Armenia, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Cote d'Ivoire, Tanzania and Djibouti
MAHASAGAR - Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions - announced in Mauritius, extending SAGAR to the wider Global South
Defence exports touch an all-time high of Rs 38,424 crore and defence production a record Rs 1.78 lakh crore
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh releases RAKSHA, the ten-year defence diplomacy roadmap (2026-2036)
3 September 2026, New Delhi (Kartavya Bhawan)
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh
Ministry of Defence, with the Ministry of External Affairs
10 years, 2026-2036
4 - Strategic Partnerships, Capacity Building, Indigenous Defence Exports, Maritime Security
Rs 38,424 crore - an all-time high, up 62.66% year on year
Rs 686 crore
Over 80 countries
Rs 50,000 crore by 2028-29
Rs 1.78 lakh crore - a record, against Rs 84,643 crore in FY 2020-21
Rs 3 lakh crore by 2028-29
Net Security Provider and First Responder in the Indian Ocean Region
For decades India's defence relationships were largely one-directional: it bought platforms, and offered partners training and goodwill. RAKSHA reflects how that has changed. A country exporting Rs 38,424 crore of defence equipment to more than 80 countries has leverage that goodwill alone never generated, because an exported platform brings years of spares, upgrades, training and joint procedures with it - influence that compounds rather than expires. The framework also answers a strategic problem. Small littoral states in the Indian Ocean now have a choice of security partners; a published ten-year roadmap tells them what Indian engagement will look like a decade out, which an ad hoc, minister-to-minister approach could never promise. The maritime pillar's language - Net Security Provider, First Responder, rules-based maritime order, freedom of navigation - is aimed at that audience. For students, RAKSHA ties together three strands usually studied separately: Aatmanirbhar Bharat in defence manufacturing, the SAGAR-to-MAHASAGAR maritime doctrine, and India's bilateral security partnerships. Its limitation is equally worth noting in an answer: it is a framework with no statutory force and no dedicated budget, so its test will be implementation through existing machinery.
RAKSHA = India's first 10-year defence diplomacy roadmap, 2026-2036
Released 3 September 2026 by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi; prepared by MoD with MEA
Four pillars: Strategic Partnerships, Capacity Building, Indigenous Defence Exports, Maritime Security
Elevates defence diplomacy to a core pillar of foreign policy, not a supporting tool
Reaffirms India as Net Security Provider and First Responder in the Indian Ocean Region
No official acronym expansion exists - RAKSHA is the document's name
Exports: Rs 38,424 crore (FY 2025-26) from Rs 686 crore (FY 2013-14), 80+ countries, target Rs 50,000 crore by 2028-29
Production: record Rs 1.78 lakh crore in FY 2025-26; target Rs 3 lakh crore by 2028-29
Lineage: SAGAR (2015) - Indo-Pacific vision (2018) - MAHASAGAR (March 2025) - RAKSHA (September 2026)
It is India's first dedicated defence diplomacy document - a ten-year roadmap for 2026 to 2036, released by the Ministry of Defence, setting out how India will build defence partnerships, run capacity building, export indigenous platforms and secure the Indian Ocean Region.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh released it in New Delhi on 3 September 2026. It was prepared by the Ministry of Defence in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs.
No official expansion has been published. RAKSHA is the title of the document, and the word itself means protection or defence in Hindi. Answers should not invent a full form.
Strategic Partnerships (bilateral and multilateral security cooperation), Capacity Building (joint exercises, training and best-practice sharing), Indigenous Defence Exports (promoting Make-in-India platforms abroad) and Maritime Security (India as Net Security Provider and First Responder in the Indian Ocean Region).
SAGAR (2015) and MAHASAGAR (March 2025) are maritime visions - the first for the Indian Ocean neighbourhood, the second widened to the Global South. RAKSHA is narrower and more operational: the defence-cooperation and defence-export roadmap through which such visions are delivered.