India and weapons of mass destruction
India and its nuclear power
India was the seventh country to develop nuclear weapons. As of 2026, India is estimated to possess 190 nuclear weapons. India previously developed chemical weapons, and is a party to the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention. India is one of four states widely believed to possess nuclear weapons that are not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
India operates a nuclear triad, consisting of approximately 80 Prithvi-II and Agni-series ballistic missiles from short to intercontinental range, 48 Mirage 2000H and Jaguar IS fighter-bombers, and 24 Sagarika submarine-launched ballistic missiles aboard two Arihant-class submarines. India is developing multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle-capable land and submarine-based ballistic missiles.
India maintains a no first use nuclear policy and credible minimum deterrence doctrine. Its no first use is qualified in that while India states it generally will not use nuclear weapons first, it may do so in the event of "a major attack against India, or Indian forces anywhere, by biological or chemical weapons."
In 1974, India conducted the Smiling Buddha nuclear test. In 1998, India carried out the Operation Shakti series of nuclear weapon tests. It is unclear if India has developed boosted fission or thermonuclear weapons.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “India and weapons of mass destruction” is india and its nuclear power. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through India, weapons and mass, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “india and its nuclear power” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2661397. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2026, 1974 and 1998.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “India and weapons of mass destruction” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.