This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
India's leaders claim they're fighting for independence and peace. But behind the patriotic slogans and colorful summits lies a coordinated campaign of manipulation, extraction and strategic dominance, targeting America's jobs, intellectual property – and even its defense systems.
At the heart of this campaign is the concept of "Atmanirbharata," a Hindi term loosely translated as "self-reliance." Yet, as revealed during the recent Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Annual Business Summit, that term is being weaponized to justify India's growing demands for unfettered access to U.S. military technology, defense partnerships and global trade advantages.
"Atmanirbharata is the only way," said Air Chief Marshal A P Singh during the 2025 CII Summit in New Delhi. "We need to be future-ready. We need to act today and get into quick 'Make in India' programs, while 'Design in India' progresses in the near future."
On its surface, it sounds like a patriotic call to strengthen India's own capabilities. In reality, it's a Trojan horse strategy that uses bilateral trade, U.S. partnerships and soft power diplomacy to siphon off American innovation and dominate key global industries by 2047, India's self-declared deadline to become a global superpower.
Make in India? or Made from American tech?
India's "Make in India" and "Design in India" campaigns are often pitched as economic opportunities for U.S. companies to tap into a rising market. But in practice, they're structured to extract sensitive intellectual property, gain privileged access to U.S. defense systems and reverse-engineer foreign-developed platforms for Indian use and export.
Programs like "Indus X, a U.S.-India defense innovation bridge alongside deep integration with the Confederation of Indian Industry, have created pathways for India to solicit American technology, defense partnerships and dual-use research under the guise of cooperation.
These initiatives are not benign. They serve a deliberate national strategy: Gain access, localize production and convert American innovation into Indian-owned dominance.
According to the India's Defence Industrial Sector Vision 2047 report by CII and prominent accounting firm KPMG, India is actively executing a 20-year plan to overtake the global defense market by fast-tracking international collaborations, joint ventures and licensing deals – especially with the United States. Their stated goal is to bypass decades of domestic R&D by pulling in advanced technology, building it on Indian soil and turning it into indigenous systems for both domestic use and export.
India's Defense Acquisition Procedure (DAP) has facilitated foreign firms being lured into joint ventures and technology partnerships, only to see their innovations stripped, repackaged and rebranded under Beijing's control. Despite the clear lessons from China's tech-theft playbook, India has successfully repurposed the same tactics under the banner of "trusted partnership."
Today, India leverages anti-China rhetoric to secure U.S. assistance in transferring technologies, securing capital investment and building the very infrastructure that will empower its digital dominance. Washington has already committed to enhancing India's processing power, funding large-scale data center development and investing more than $2 million in joint R&D, all framed as a necessary counter to communist China.
But India's goal is not simply collaboration or partnership. It's technological capture.
The CII-KPMG report makes it clear: India cannot currently compete in high-end defense manufacturing due to gaps in R&D investment, talent retention and industrial infrastructure. So instead, the strategy is to build those capabilities on the backs of foreign innovation. And under India's policies, all R&D that enters India stays in India, benefiting Indian state-backed firms, not American interests.
What U.S. policymakers must understand is that any bilateral agreement or defense cooperation with India is not a partnership of equals. It's a calculated arrangement designed to transfer American brainpower and proprietary defense capabilities into a permanent Indian industrial advantage, one that ultimately undermines U.S. military edge, economic sovereignty and national security.
Counter to China today, India dominance tomorrow
India's Defense Acquisition Procedure (DAP) has facilitated foreign firms being lured into joint ventures and technology partnerships, only to see their innovations stripped, repackaged and rebranded under Beijing's control. Despite the clear lessons from China's tech-theft playbook, India has successfully repurposed the same tactics under the banner of "trusted partnership."
Today, India leverages anti-China rhetoric to secure U.S. assistance in transferring technologies, securing capital investment and building the very infrastructure that will empower its digital dominance. Washington has already committed to enhancing India's processing power, funding large-scale data center development and investing more than $2 million in joint R&D, all framed as a necessary counter to communist China.
But India's goal is not simply collaboration or partnership. It's technological capture.
The CII-KPMG report makes it clear: India cannot currently compete in high-end defense manufacturing due to gaps in R&D investment, talent retention and industrial infrastructure. So instead, the strategy is to build those capabilities on the backs of foreign innovation. And under India's policies, all R&D that enters India stays in India, benefiting Indian state-backed firms, not American interests.
What U.S. policymakers must understand is that any bilateral agreement or defense cooperation with India is not a partnership of equals. It's a calculated arrangement designed to transfer American brainpower and proprietary defense capabilities into a permanent Indian industrial advantage, one that ultimately undermines U.S. military edge, economic sovereignty and national security.
Counter to China today, India dominance tomorrow
This wasn't just economic realism, it was a warning: India doesn't view foreign investment as partnership. It views it as a strategic weapon, a tool to capture technology, rebrand it under "Make in India" and convert American innovation into Indian geopolitical power.
Yet, while India quietly screens every deal through a sovereignty-first lens, it sells itself to U.S. policymakers as a "trusted partner," a counterweight to China and a democratic ally. That framing, now repeated by think tanks, foreign policy elites and bipartisan lawmakers, is India's most effective lobbying tool. It deflects scrutiny and unlocks everything from defense co-production to semiconductor investment to bilateral technology agreements.
As noted in a recent Eurasia Review analysis, India's growing closeness with the United States is already reshaping the geopolitical balance of Asia, particularly its relationship with China. Joint military exercises, arms transfers and intelligence sharing between India and the U.S. have emboldened India to take a more aggressive stance on the Chinese border. That's not just strategic cooperation, It's India using the China card to gain access to top-tier U.S. defense capabilities and next-gen technologies.
This wasn't just economic realism, it was a warning: India doesn't view foreign investment as partnership. It views it as a strategic weapon, a tool to capture technology, rebrand it under "Make in India" and convert American innovation into Indian geopolitical power.
Yet, while India quietly screens every deal through a sovereignty-first lens, it sells itself to U.S. policymakers as a "trusted partner," a counterweight to China and a democratic ally. That framing, now repeated by think tanks, foreign policy elites and bipartisan lawmakers, is India's most effective lobbying tool. It deflects scrutiny and unlocks everything from defense co-production to semiconductor investment to bilateral technology agreements.
As noted in a recent Eurasia Review analysis, India's growing closeness with the United States is already reshaping the geopolitical balance of Asia, particularly its relationship with China. Joint military exercises, arms transfers and intelligence sharing between India and the U.S. have emboldened India to take a more aggressive stance on the Chinese border. That's not just strategic cooperation, It's India using the China card to gain access to top-tier U.S. defense capabilities and next-gen technologies.
