In the 1990s, when India was pursuing economic reforms, testing nuclear weapons and raising its profile internationally, its defence establishment began work on a homegrown military jet engine: the Kaveri, named after a river in the country’s south.

For a nation where self-reliance in industry is a mantra of both Narendra Modi’s government and those that preceded it, the ability to develop and build such powerful technology on its own soil — referred to in India as an “indigenous” product — is one of its biggest dreams.

But producing advanced fighter jet engines is a complex process and the knowledge to make them requires real-world experience built up over decades. Only five countries — notably the current permanent members of the UN Security Council — know how to build them: the US, UK, France, Russia and China. Beijing, however, is just moving from a reliance on imported equipment from Russia and only recently test flew a fighter jet with a supposedly homegrown engine.