Defence experts on Saturday called for development of more indigenous equipment of Information Warfare in the country to build an edge against adversaries in the battlefield.
Participating in a discussion on ‘Information Warfare- the new face of war’, Lt General (Retd.) Vijay Oberoi said despite major advancements in the field, India was still banking on Information Warfare Techniques imported from other countries, which could be very fatal. He said that at a time when all forms of weapons, whether nuclear, conventional or sub conventional, were being managed by computers it was not good that we were still banking on equipment made by others.
In his address, Lt General (Retd.) RS Panwar said that while countries like US, China and Russia had already taken concrete steps to strengthen their Information Warfare techniques, India was still to take an appropriate call on it. He said that like Army, Navy, Air force, Space and Cyber Domain, it was also a part of the modern warfare.
Addressing the gathering, Lieutenant General (Retd.) SP Kochar said that Information Warfare must be seen as an enabler to support the Commander during the war operations. He also advocated that every Jawan who enters the training centre be IT qualified.
Meanwhile, the major factors which triggered the 1962-Indo-China war were discussed at length during a panel discussion - Over Hang Of The Sino-India War Of 1962 And Today--by former top army officials, film-makers and military authors.
The panelists included Major General (retd) G.G. Dwivedi who retired as Assistant Chief Integrated Defense Staff (strategic), Major General P.J.S Sandhu (retd) veteran of 1971 Indo-Pak war, Lieutenant General J. S. Cheema (retd), film-maker and military historian Shiv Kumar Verma and Claude Arpi, author of –The Fate of Tibet.
Another session saw experts advocate a level playing field for private entrepreneurs for boosting Defence production in the country in order to make the country self reliant in military hardware.
Taking part in a discussion on Military Industrial Base and Make in India, former Chief of Indian Army General (Retd.) VP Malik said that India was importing 14% of the total arms and ammunition globally, which was more than what China and Pakistan import collectively. He said that in 1992, the Defence Reseasrch and Development Organisation had chalked out a 10-year plan under which the then trend of 80% import of weapons and 20% export was to be reversed within ten years. However, General Malik said that in 2005 it was found that exports had increased to just 30% and imports had decreased to 70%.
In his address, Lt General (Retd.) KJ Singh also laid stress on status check and formulating future strategies on producing weapons under Make in India.
Vice Admiral (Retd.) HS Malhi called for a paradigm shift in Defence Production.
During a discussion on “Armour Operations of the 1965 War”, Lt Gen TS Shergill (Retd) said a mix of cohesive strategy and aggression paid dividends for India during the 1965 war with Pakistan.
DEFENCE EXPERTS BAT FOR DIRECT & OPEN CONNECT BETWEEN PUBLIC & ARMED FORCES
To ensure better interface between public and the armed forces, defence experts on Saturday emphasised the need to bring far more openness in defence matters to mobilise public opinion in the larger interest of national security.
They were also of the opinion that there should no politicisation of the defence forces, which was gradually creeping into the system.
This came out during an interactive session on RsValour, History, Politics and Media’ with columnist Vir Sanghvi on the second day of Military Literature Festival-2018 here at the Lake Club.
The panalists included Lt. Gen (Retd) N S Brar, Lt. General (Retd) T S Shergill, UK based Brig. Justin Maciejewski, NDTV Channel Head Arati Singh, besides Actors Sonu Sood and Gurmeet Chaudhary.
The defence experts also underscored the need to have direct connect between common masses and armed forces to realise the hardships faced by the army personal and their 24X7 arduous nature of duty to safeguard our borders from internal as well as external aggression.
Lt Gen. (Retd) N S Brar underlined the need for general debates in the public domain on matters related to National Security and defence forces. Thus, intimate interface was required more frequently between the Government and defence forces on issues of higher defence management, he added.
The panelists felt that regular media interaction should be held to dispel misconceptions while reporting military affairs far more accurately to ensure its credibility on the one hand and achieve the ultimate objective of national security on the other.
ACTORS HIGHLIGHT ROLE OF CINEMA IN PROMOTING PATRIOTISM
Dwelling on the role of cinema in portraying valour of the armed forces, the panalists and audience largely appreciated the contribution of Bollywood in producing films like Haqiqat, Border, Lakshay and the recently launched ‘Paltan’ to showcase the gallantry deeds of our brave soldiers.
Participating in the discussions, actor Sonu Sood and co-star Gurmeet Chaudhary of Hindi movie ‘Paltan’, directed by JP Dutta, gave a brief account about an action-war drama based on incident of 1967 Indo-China. Sonu said the film vividly presented the real-time war account, thus portraying the patriotic spirit of Indian soldiers with the objective of imbibing the spirit of nationalism amongst the countrymen, especially the youngsters.
Several serving and retired military personnel, historians, foreign military delegates, academicians and students actively participated in the session.