Army Seminar MTS 2.0 Themed CHAKRA: Curtain Raiser Held

The Indian Army has set the stage for a seminar on rebuilding what it already owns rather than buying afresh. Lieutenant General Pushpendra Singh, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Western Command, opened the Curtain Raiser for Mechanisation Technology Seminar 2.0, or MTS 2.0, at the Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi on 26 October 2026. Western Command put the event together along with the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers, known by its short form SIDM.

The seminar ahead

The seminar itself carries the theme CHAKRA, Transforming Existing Platforms for Future Combat. It is set for 14 and 15 December 2026 at Chandimandir Military Station, again with SIDM as partner. The gathering will put people from the Indian Army, the defence industry and academia in one room to work through advances in technology and ways of lifting the capability of mechanised forces.

What MTS 2.0 aims at

MTS 2.0 is an initiative of Western Command. Its stated purpose is to sharpen the fighting edge of mechanised forces by turning military platforms already in service into technologically advanced, capable and future-ready combat systems. Six strands guide the work: combat capability enhancement, harnessing technology, adaptability, kinetics, refurbishment and Atmanirbharta. A particular stress is laid on converting operational capability gaps and requirements into clearly worded Problem Definition Statements, or PDS, so that industry has something precise to design against.

Why it matters

The curtain raiser laid out the broad vision and the focus areas of the coming seminar. It underlined technology-driven modernisation, collaboration between the civil and military sides and self-reliance as the route to stronger indigenous defence capability. It also gave military users, industry representatives and academics a place to talk to one another about upgrading platforms in service, home-grown innovation and the operational needs now emerging. For the Army the exercise reflects a wider shift: instead of treating modernisation as a procurement question alone, it is being framed as a problem of engineering, refurbishment and partnership, with existing tanks and vehicles made fit for a changing battlefield.