In this episode of Beyond the Indus, host Tushar Shetty sits down with Colonel Ajai Shukla – a former Indian Army officer, war correspondent, and strategic affairs editor at Business Standard – to examine the structural challenges facing India's military and what it will take to prepare for the wars ahead.

Drawing on decades of experience in both uniform and journalism, Col. Shukla assesses Operation Sindoor and the lessons India should be drawing from Ukraine on the evolving role of armor, drones, and counter-drone technology on the modern battlefield. They discuss the manpower-versus-modernization dilemma at the heart of India’s defense budget, the Agnipath scheme’s merits and limits as a response to it, and why India remains one of the few major powers without a published national security strategy or integrated joint theater commands.

Shukla also examines India’s dependency on Russian arms in the wake of the Ukraine conflict, the credibility of the Atmanirbhar Bharat indigenization agenda, and how India must rebalance its force posture along the Line of Actual Control to meet the growing challenge from China’s rapidly modernizing military.