India's higher education system, as reported by the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), has approximately 30 million students enrolled across 50,000 institutions. Despite the significant number of students, there exists a notable gap between ambition and capability in advanced defence research and systems engineering. While students demonstrate a strong interest in defence technologies such as missiles and cryptography, they often do not receive adequate exposure until late in their academic careers, which can lead to diminished interest and engagement. The National Education Policy 2020 aims to address this issue by prioritizing initial exposure and applied problem-solving in undergraduate education. However, the execution of these policies remains inconsistent, hampered by rigid institutional practices and security constraints. To bridge this gap, it is essential to integrate defence-related electives into the curriculum, foster faculty engagement with defence systems, and create collaborative projects with public research labs. The future of India's defence capabilities relies on developing a robust educational pipeline that engages engineers early in their careers, ensuring they are well-prepared to meet the evolving demands of the sector.