In this age of computers the Service HQ and MOD have employed
several civilian staff for the maintenance of computers and
networks. The war room leak case had shown that cyber security was
going to be a major challenge and net centric communications the key
to warfare. The Chief of the Indian Army Gen JJ Singh a popular
figure on the Golf course, is a fine soldier first and a General
later and that is what the huge Indian Army needs. For it was
Napoleon who said an army of lions led by a sheep can never win, but
an army of sheep led by a lion will win. And ‘Singh’ means a lion.
This lack of lion like leadership and the willingness to stand up to
the political masters has been alluded to in some way in the
Henderson Brooks report, which is locked up in MOD and even past
Chiefs of Staff have not seen it. This is as sad as it is strange.
Now the PM says the documents can be released after 50 years so we
will have to wait till 2012 to know the truth of the India–China war
of 1962, if the deadline is not extended in the meanwhile, as many
actions of Leadership or the lack of it may come to light.
Gen. JJ Singh made a profound statement at the recently held
DEFENCE COMMUNI-CATIONS
SEMINAR –– DEFCOM at the Meridian Hotel in
New Delhi. The Army Chief stated that the Indian Army, the second
largest in the world must also be counted as one of the best. It was
obvious that the lion who leads the Army knew the value of IT and
swift communications, as the key to the future battlefield successes
––
and systems and weapons which were now software intensive had
to be inducted. The seminar was organized by Gen Davinder Kumar the
SO C-in-C with CII and had adequate funds as it was sponsored by
Nortel, Raytheon, Selex and some twelve other communications giants
and the theme was 'Tactical Communications in the Battle Area'. The
senior army brass appears to know that the civilian Industry has
many of the keys and must be involved. The whole gamut of Army
tactical communications was discussed and SO C-in-C asked Shri MM
Pallam Raju to take quicker decisions for acquisition of
sophisticated communication equipment.
Separately Gen JJ Singh addressing the first meeting in
Delhi of the
Army IT Advisory Board, said the Army looks to IT for improved
administration and cost-effective resource management during peace
time and as a force multiplier during military operations. Mark the
words civilian help to modernise the Army. The army is well into the
process of establishing a strong IT infrastructure, and the advisory
board is meant to help it harness the skills of the IT industry and
academia.
Appreciating the role of the IT industry, Singh said
India had emerged
as an IT giant due to the vision and entrepreneurial acumen of
leaders in this field. The advisory board's meeting was chaired by
Lt. Gen. S. Pattabhiraman, the army's vice chief, and was attended
by senior officers of the army and defence ministry, besides
academicians and industrialists. Now the board will, on a regular
basis, address macro-level issues and provide advice on IT-related
aspects, including future technologies, infrastructure development,
equipment maintenance and security.
The members of the board include K.S. Viswanathan, vice
president for strategic sales with Wipro, Tanmoy Chakrabarty, Head
of the global government industry group of Tata Consultancy
Services, and Rajendra S. Pawar, chairman of NIIT. Special invitees to the meeting included T.S. Darbari,
director of corporate strategy at HP, Neelam Dhawan, managing
director of Microsoft
India,
and Bhaskar Pramanik, managing director of Sun Microsystems. Just
shows how fast communications are moving and where the civilians
come in.
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