Who Builds India’s Drones?

India has built a drone assembly industry, not a drone manufacturing one — and its own customs data prove it: in FY2025-26 India imported about US$8 million of finished drones but roughly US$767 million of drone and aircraft parts. The 2022 import ban relocated the dependency upstream rather than removing it, into the rare-earth magnets, lithium-ion cells and flight-controller silicon that are 78–90% Chinese. This report maps that dependency layer by layer, scores 100 opportunity surfaces and 50 components on six proprietary frameworks (DLI, DSCDM, DCS, DIRM, DCRI, DOSF), quantifies the value India leaves on the table (≈43% captured today, ≈66% achievable — a reshoring prize of ~US$1.1bn a year by 2030), and sets out a selective-sovereignty path to 2035. Thirteen chapters, sixteen figures, a 100-opportunity registry, a 50-component Drone Sovereignty Index and thirteen reference appendices.