News on Indian Economy
DRDO has initiated procurement of consultancy services covering detailed engineering, design drawings and soil investigation for the proposed facility. The current tender was published on August 6, 2026, marking an important preparatory step towards establishing the specialised wind-tunnel infrastructure at RCI.
The BRUTE-TLH is the logistics configuration of Gridbots’ larger BRUTE 6×6 unmanned ground vehicle platform, which has been designed and manufactured in India for defence and homeland-security applications. The company’s currently published technical specifications list a 250 kg direct-loading payload capacity for the Tactical Load Hauler configuration.
Domestic consumption expanded considerably faster. India consumed 55.9 million tonnes of finished steel during April–July, up from 51.9 million tonnes during the same period of 2025, representing year-on-year growth of 7.8%. The increase highlights the continuing strength of India’s internal steel market as infrastructure development, urban construction, railways, automobiles, engineering and manufacturing generate additional demand.
Bengaluru-based InCore Semiconductors is working in precisely this area. The company develops configurable processor cores based on the RISC-V instruction set. It also offers system-on-chip design tools, reference designs and supporting technologies for custom silicon development.
Astra integration on Rafale already has an established industrial foundation. In October 2022, Bharat Dynamics Limited and Dassault Aviation signed a memorandum of understanding covering the integration of Indian weapon systems, including Astra, on the Rafale platform. The agreement created a formal basis for adapting indigenous missiles to the French fighter.
The initiative, called Atomic Technologies Licensed for Applications at Sea (ATLAS), was launched by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Washington on August 26, 2026. India participated in the ministerial-level launch through Atomic Energy Commission Chairman and Department of Atomic Energy Secretary Dr. Ajit Kumar Mohanty, placing the country among nations examining how advanced nuclear reactors could eventually be integrated into civilian maritime infrastructure.
The programme is being pursued through DRDO’s Technology Development Fund, which encourages Indian companies, particularly MSMEs and technology enterprises, to develop critical capabilities required by the country’s defence and strategic sectors.
This process is already taking place on a substantial scale. By the end of December 2025, 59,202 micro food-processing enterprises had been formalised under PMFME, while more than ₹17,015 crore of investment had been mobilised through the wider programme. The scheme had generated approximately 5.18 lakh direct and indirect employment opportunities, demonstrating how relatively small processing units can collectively create significant economic activity across rural and semi-urban India.
The two organisations signed a Joint Working Arrangement (JWA) on August 25, 2026, creating a structured framework that will bring the Armed Forces, DRDO laboratories, academia and India’s defence industry into closer collaboration. The arrangement is intended to improve the transition of promising technologies from research and experimentation towards capabilities suitable for future military applications.
One of the major highlights was the unveiling of C-DOT’s Quantum Products Wall, showcasing indigenous technologies from its Quantum Series. These include Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) solutions designed to protect communication networks as advances in quantum computing create new challenges for conventional encryption. A dedicated booklet consolidating C-DOT’s indigenous quantum-security technologies was also released.
