Since the late 1960s, India has accumulated major ground systems capabilities in its space program. This article discusses the process of building competence and technological learning, with a specific focus on the role of international collaboration, foreign imports, and indigenous efforts during the technology acquisition and building of rocket launching systems, satellite control and tracking systems, and earth stations. It highlights the importance of foreign technology inputs, particularly in the formative phase, where they are extremely helpful for building competence in developing countries like India. It demonstrates that strong indigenous efforts, combined with foreign imports, were vital in helping India achieve threshold capability and sustain technological change in the accumulative phase. It illustrates that foreign imports and indigenous efforts played complementary roles in building competence in India's ground systems technology.