On October 26, 2023, at the curtain raiser to the inaugural Chanakya Dialogues being hosted by the Indian Army along with the Centre of Land Warfare (CLAWS), the Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pande drew lessons from the Russia-Ukraine conflict and said that land continues to be an important domain (key domain) of warfare, especially when there are contested borders akin to India. When asked about the situation along the border, General Manoj Pande said that it was stable.
Importance of Terrestrial Domain
“I believe that victory makers would have to be in the land domain and hence the salience of the land domain. That is not to suggest when we look at enhancing their outcomes through thr jointness and integration that we wish to or must achieve with other services and stakeholders. It is as important, but in my view in the terms of salience of land, the land domain is going to be extremely important in our case. General Pande said in a fireside chat with Lt General Raj Shukla (retd).
What are Chanakya Dialogues ?
The Chanakya Defence Dialogues is a prestigious two-day event that brings together renowned speakers, military strategists, ambassadors, and leading thinkers from the field of defence and strategic affairs. The dialogue aims to address a wider range of security challenges and strategies in the pivotal regions of Indo-Pacific and South Asia.
This event serves as a platform of discussions on critical issues related to national security, military capabilities and global developments highlighting India’s commitment to stay prepared and self-reliant in the ever-evolving global landscape.
Chanakya Dialogues 2023
The Chanakya Defence Dialogues 2023 will witness a congregation of eminent speakers from India as well as abroad and is planned to be a regular event in the years to come, the Army Chief said. The dialogue will be conducted in six sessions, focusing on the themes of the neighbourhood first that is South Asia prognosis will be the theme of the first session followed by the second and third session that will deal with Indo-Pacific, collaborative partnership for security and emerging technologies respectively.
The fourth session will be devoted to Indian Defence Industry and the fifth will be related to deterrence (comprehensive deterrence, the India way) The last session is for collaborative capacity building. The Army Chief said “Our aim is to complement Raisina Dialogues”
On the geopolitical situation, he said “ There were unprecedented changes in the world. We are also seeing the centrality of the national interests in global affairs. The importance of national security is growing in international affairs.
Technological Transformation
On the ongoing transformation of the forces, the Army Chief said it was based on five pillars, including technology infusion, reforming existing structures, jointness, human management. “We are putting significant focus to leverage the infusion of modern technology in the Army. He added that self-reliance was a key lesson from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine Conflict.
Modernisation and technology indication are central to our capability development programme. We have been focusing on the infusion of the new technology. We have identified 45 niche technologies that we need to follow.
We have defined philosophy of Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in terms of surveillance and image interpretation and the key is to interpret information as quickly as possible. In the field of robotics, we are looking at man and unmanned teaming,” General Pande said.
