Swavlamban 2026: Navy Seminar on 26-27 October in New Delhi

The Indian Navy will hold the fifth edition of Swavlamban, its flagship Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Seminar (NIIO seminar), on 26 and 27 October 2026 at the Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi. The curtain raiser press conference was held in the capital on 19 October 2026 and was chaired by Vice Admiral Ajay Kochhar, Vice Chief of the Naval Staff.

What the seminar is for

Swavlamban is the Navy's annual meeting ground for innovators, industry partners, start-ups, MSMEs, academia, investors and the armed forces. Its purpose is to turn indigenous technological ideas into fighting capability at sea and so deepen Aatmanirbharta in naval equipment. Speaking to the media, the Vice Chief of the Naval Staff said the seminar had, since 2022, linked the Navy's operational needs to what Indian industry and Indian universities can build. He stressed that modern warfare is changing in character and that niche technology must be matured into systems that can actually be deployed on warships. For a force that operates far from home and stays at sea for long stretches, he added, durable indigenous technology decides combat readiness and operational flexibility.

The exhibition

The exhibition at Swavlamban 2026 is arranged in thematic areas built around indigenous success stories. The themes are maritime surveillance, counter-unmanned aerial systems (Counter-UAS), artificial intelligence and quantum technology, nuclear, biological and chemical defence and damage control (NBCD), and safety and efficiency enhancers.

Money and the start-up ecosystem

Sessions with venture capitalists and investors form a central part of the programme, covering funding, the scaling of promising firms and the commercialisation of indigenous technology. A panel of small and medium enterprises will discuss self-reliance and the strengthening of the iDEX ecosystem, resilient supply chains, academic entrepreneurship and the journeys of individual start-ups.

Three documents to be released

Three publications will be released during the seminar: the Swavlamban 5.0 Document, the Compendium on Technology Imperatives, and the Naval Unified Systems, Ethernet and Tactical Utilisation (NAUSETU) Interface Standards. The last of these sets common interface standards for naval systems, which matters for industry because equipment built by different firms has to work together on the same platform. Taken together, the seminar is pitched as a step towards a future-proof Navy whose technology goals match the demands of present-day warfare.