PLI & 5G Testbeds to prepare for better defence communication

Indian Army has been using one of its arms, the ‘Corps of Signals’ for handling military communications. For this, a robust & secure strategic infrastructure is needed to assist soldiers’ transformation into a potent, highly synergized and fully networked force. But the ambitious growth goals of the country need more pedigree in order to build a vast, multilayered and tech-sealed patrolling network. As India’s defence domain plans to take its capabilities to dizzying heights, it would now require unfailing support from other domains too, with Electronics and Telecom being one of the prime picks.

At present, many proactive measures are being taken to leverage both existing and emerging technologies to facilitate this seamless transition. The Rs.11,330 crore Network for Spectrum (NFS) was rolled out recently which aims at laying an alternate communication network for Defence Services for release of spectrum and boosting the communication capabilities in a major way leading to enhanced national operational preparedness. The project has forward linkages to other related industries such as telecom equipment manufacturing and other telecommunication related services as well. In another development, the Indian Army had collaborated with IIT Madras to establish a 5G Testbed at the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering (MCTE). The Test Bed will facilitate the Indian Army to utilise the 5G technology for its operational use, especially along its borders.

In this way, the defence sector is rightly experiencing a convergence with the telecom sector at the right time when India is exploring opportunities that technologies like 5G and schemes like PLI can present. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has launched an incentive scheme for design-led manufacturers and extended the PLI scheme for telecom by one year. The move is aimed at incentivising design-led manufacturing in the telecom sector, which comes days after India took its first step towards 5G rollout when the Union Cabinet approved a proposal to invite applications for 5G spectrum auctions.

This will also result in bolstering the Defence Startup ecosystem in the country as any latest technology, communication-based or otherwise, is like fuel for this heavy sector. In a bid to support Indian startups, the Defence Minister had also launched the sixth edition of the Defence Indian Startup Challenge (DISC) under the iDEX programme in April this year. Under this, the Defence ministry backs startups that can offer software solutions such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), advanced imaging, sensor systems, big data analytics, autonomous unmanned systems and secured communication systems to the Indian military. MoD also aims to support Indian startups by offering financial assistance in the range of INR 1.5 Cr to INR 10 Cr. under this challenge.

Defence Startup Culture in the country is also expected to flourish in few years time as India looks forward to having trained, poised and industry-ready Agniveers as supporting staff soon. One can also expect a lot of defence-related startups mushrooming 3-4 years from now across the country, taking the defence ecosystem to hit new heights. Prospects of achieving unprecedented success will be especially brighter for those Agniveers, who possess an interest and understanding of both defence and Technology.

March towards Youth Engagement and Leadership

While many raise doubts and questions regarding the professional prospects for Agniveers after 4 years of intense training, a very foundational aspect is being missed out to be taken into consideration. Armed forces are known for discipline, compassion and service more than anything else. Not surprisingly, all these three qualities are also being seen as the essential requirement in the booming entrepreneurship and startup culture of New India. Combine ground training in extreme weather conditions and difficult terrains to the idea, and India is ready with trained, poised and industry-ready youth that is both able and eager to fill the country’s economic potholes. This lot will not only possess leadership qualities but their sense of service and submission are some of the natural instincts that the country can certainly look forward to.

Even before the process of recruitment starts under the transformative ‘Agnipath scheme’, the offers of jobs are splurging for the ‘Agniveers’ from both government and private entities. With Anand Mahindra- the chairman of the business conglomerate Mahindra Group and Harsh Goenka of RPG group announcing their readiness to hire ‘Agniveers’, many more corporate companies are expected to come up with such offers. Profusely appreciating the ‘Agnipath scheme’ Sanjeev Bikhchandani, the founder of Naurki.com has also said that Agniveers will have a sense of service and commitment and after serving the army for four years, they can easily adapt into a number of career options.

The calls pouring in for the Agniveers are exhilarating. State governments like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh among others have promised to give them reservations in state police forces and others. Union Home Ministry has already announced that the in Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Assam Rifles, Agniveers would be given priority. CAPFs include forces such as BSF, CISF, CRPF, ITBP, NSG and SSB. An announcement of 10% reservation in the Coast Guard, defence civilian posts and all the 16 defence public sector undertakings (DPSU) has already been made. Many other central ministries, PSUs & corporations have also pledged priority to Agniveers.

To support the ‘Agniveers’ on completion of their tenure, various public sector banks, public sector insurance firms and financial institutions have committed to explore employment opportunities for them in a meeting with Finance Ministry. Banks have also committed to explore the possibilities of supporting ‘Agniveers’ through suitable credit facilities for skill upgradation, education for setting up ventures and to instill the notion entrepreneurship. Importantly, the present government schemes like ‘MUDRA Yojana’, ‘Stand Up India’ scheme among others would also be leveraged to extend support to these soldiers. Besides, the Department of Telecom held a meeting with all the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) like Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Jio and Vodafone-Idea to discuss ways and means on how they can be utilized. During discussions, some areas like Optical Fibre Maintenance, Air Conditioning equipment, provision of infrastructure especially last mile connectivity, Fibre to Home (FTTH) and in customer interface areas, were identified in which engagement and employment of ‘Agniveers’ could be done. Youth affairs and sports ministry under Anurag Thakur has also announced that after 4 years of service, Agniveers would be considered for appointment as physical education teachers in schools.

Officials from the Armed forces and skill development and education ministries have already begun discussions on building a framework to enhance skills to be acquired by Agniveers. In the first round, they identified sectors like aviation, shipping, automotive, drone technology and management, armoured vehicles management, submarine related skilling courses during their four years of service itself. Ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship (MSDE) is going to collaborate with various wings of the armed forces to train the Agniveers in additional courses to offer them ‘Skill India Certificate’ while in service, enabling them to pursue diverse opportunities in entrepreneurship and job roles. All organizations related to ‘Skill India’ plan like Directorate General of Training, National Skill Development Corporation, various Sector Skills Councils, entrepreneurship institutes NIESBUD, IIE and skills regulators NCVET will be connected with this process of ensuring that Agniveers get the required certifications while in jobs.

Allaying the fears of fewer recruitments, Army vice-chief Lt-General B S Raju has said that Indian Army would progressively scale up the annual recruitment from 40,000 Agniveers this year to 1.2 lakh by the seventh or eighth year and then 1.6 lakh by the tenth or eleventh year under the Agnipath scheme. If apprehensions still exist, it is nothing but pure politics being played out by the vested interests, negatively fanning feelings of the youth.

Is Coaching really helpful?

Textbook definition of coaching is to get support in achieving a targeted personal or professional goal. More nuanced usage of this term is the process of giving a student extra teaching in a particular subject. Cultural moorings and history and current availability of types and competition for jobs in India have made coaching for few available jobs a booming industry in itself. A coaching culture of this kind in India is evidently growing every year, which seems to have been working inversely proportional to the vacancy figures being made available due to perverse incentives to tutors.

The problems of the students compound manifold as the promises and priorities of the majority of the coaching classes are misplaced since they hardly factor in the situations students face or are from. Their sole objective is to reap rich benefits by promising skies to the credulous parents and students. The fact also remains that there could be more than 100 times aspirants than the vacancies and all harbour the same dream of cracking a particular exam with all possible resources to their disposal, which without doubt create psychological, social and economic upheavals, resulting in violence and other ugly scenes in some parts of the country.

There is little denying the fact that a right kind of coaching proves helpful for especially the students coming from rural and semi-urban areas who are normally not aware or well-aware of the latest trends and practices of how to prepare for various exams. For example, a coaching is supposed to be giving them the right guidance, personalization of studies, new learning styles, tips for getting a competitive advantages, the proper utilization of time and routine, selection of subjects, getting to cover up specific chapters/subjects/topics among others. However the cons always overwhelm the pros. The cons also constitute additional expenditure on education by the poor middle class on coaching class which is rising rapidly, extra homework burden on students which causes physical and psychological stress to them and their families, focus on rote learning and curriculum being different from school academic structure among others.

The trend of having a parallel practice and guidance now seems to start right after a child completes his or her Kindergarten. The idea of having a coaching has become a trend today with parents too being unavailable for their part of impartations to children, and instead substituting it with coaching institutes. This has encouraged coaching institutes over last two decades to upgrade themselves with multiplied service packages, big promises with no guarantee, study material entrapment and tricky terms and conditions. This pressurises both types of students – those who take coachings, feel the pressure of clearing exams and the pressure increases manifold with more and more attempts and parents staring at them; and those who do not pursue coachings struggle with pressure of incompetence and fear of failure.

The situation can better be understood by the numbers of employees in central and state government services. The Union Budget for 2022-23 estimated the strength of central government employees at 34.65 lakh. If we add around 14 lakh armed forces, the number reaches to around 47 lakh employees. According to the report of the 7th Pay Commission, the total sanctioned strength of the central government was around 38.9 lakh in 2014. The central government employs around 8.5% of organised workforce with armed forces being the biggest employer. The military constitutes around 30% of the central workforce, followed by railways with around 28% share in central employees. Even among central government jobs the majority of government employees belong to group C with a share of 88.7%, followed by group B with 8.5% share and group A with just 2.8% of the share. While, state governments employ around one crore people. The average recruitment in the central government between 2006 and 2014, was a little over one lakh a year. But the number of youth preparing for government jobs both central and states, stands at several millions. The largest employer armed forces recruit around 60 thousands a year and each year, those knocking the job market stand at around 1.2 Crores. Solution to this is employment in stricter sense of being engaged in productive work, not necessarily a job. Agnipath is one marvellous program which is bound to transform the lives of the selected Agniveers, whether they continue in the job or step out and become an entrepreneur.

Strategic Evolution of Indian Armed Forces

Geography is important for Indian defence. Indian Peninsula is a distinct landmass with half its territory landlocked, major mountain ranges in the North, and the other southern half surrounded by 3 different oceans. Such a distinct, versatile and difficult geographic perimeter is guarded and patrolled by the Indian Armed Force, prime guardians of national integrity and sovereignty. From guarding the world’s highest battlefield in Siachen, to being posted in the extremely hot Thar and other desert regions in the west, to patrolling the politically sensitive Indo-China Border region and Bangladesh border region in the Eastern part, to guarding the never-ending stretch of the Indian Coastline, the Armed Forces patrol the entire length and breadth of the country even with unforgiving weather conditions beating down on them.

Indian armed forces evolved into a world class group of fighting forces since independence to meet the fast-increasing security, intelligence and strategic needs of the country. It requires to be noted that we had inherited a military that had been created, trained and equipped by the British regime to protect and consolidate their interests only. From a British led and man-power oriented force to truly techno-mechanised security personnel, we have seen revolutionary changes in past 75 years. These changes didn’t come in a day or two, but by fighting different threatres of war from western desert to Europe, to the forest of Burma and matching and exercising with the mightiest and most modernised troops of Europe, America, Israel and others. In between, Indian armed forces also fought several wars, which also proved to be the best training for both military and political establishments.

As per some estimates, presently at third position in military might in the world, it was hard for the Indian army to imagine that in the span of 75 years, a poverty-stricken, fragmented and deeply traumatised country would emerge as a military powerhouse. This transformation required continuous reforms of the processes as to how armed forces should operate keeping in view the fast changes in the global military practices. Certainly, the evolving global and regional strategic environments and perceptions have helped us grow much faster in last 8 years, however the increased focus spurred by the recognition of the needs and fast political decision makings have truly transformed the Indian army during these years. Changes gaining much momentum with a lot of thrust on self-sufficiency in terms of defence productions, are something, that can easily be seen. India’s growing military prowess has also resulted in a more robust and adventurist foreign policy in last few years.

The Indian military, Navy and Air Forces all are undergoing rapid expansion and transformation. Not only armed forces have grown like anything, but now, India has a robust air force with most modern fighter jets capable of playing both defensive and offensive roles, as have been seen in recent years and the strength of the navy is also rapidly growing with the fast acquisitions and developments of aircrafts carriers, submarines and a number of other world class navel assets.

Women participation and induction has also increased in the armed forces unprecedentedly. The number of women officers are almost tripled in about 6 years. Till recently, women were only part of ground duty in the Indian Army but now, women are flying aircraft in the Navy and Air Force, and now the Indian Army has also opened the way for women pilots by starting the ‘Army Aviation course’. in 2021, 83 women had been inducted as Jawans for the first time in the Indian Army. It is also heartening to note here that three women officers have been granted the rank of lieutenant general or equivalent.

Furthering the reform, for the first time, some kind of reservation has been devised for the armed forces with the Centre announcing a 10% reservation for ‘Agniveers’ along with a 3-year age relaxation above the upper age limit in the recruitment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and Assam Rifles under ‘Agnipath scheme’- an attractive and transformative defence recruitment scheme of the Government of India. Moreover, India is rapidly upgrading its defence capabilities with more than 93 military modernization projects worth more than 18.4 billion dollar currently in progress. That is something every Indian should be proud of.

Building Smart Machine and Men Indigenously

Internet was a US military invention which went on to change the way humans live. Defence sector across the developed as well as developing countries spends a lot on R&D as well as in purchase, manufacturing and maintenance of traditional as well as cutting edge equipment.

According to a report by SIPRI (as of 25 April, 2022), India stands as the third largest military spender in the world. India has been endorsing the idea of building a strong indigenous defence manufacturing capacity and seeking investments from both foreign and domestic companies alike in the sector. Both the developments hint towards the unprecedented churn in the Indian defence ecosystem, which is giving a much-needed impetus to India’s fast-evolving defence economy.

India is rapidly modernising its defence capabilities to keep the Armed Forces in a state of readiness. More than 93 military modernization projects worth around Rs 1.43 Lakh Crore are currently in progress. In recent years, India has taken several ground breaking steps like creating defence planning committee, introduction of Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020, Technology Development Fund scheme, appointment of CDS to bring in greater synergy with Ministry of Defence, long term modernization plan by factoring the emerging or futuristic security situations, Army Design bureau, reorganization of Army headquarters, setting up of defence corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, Military Technology Cooperation, increased foreign collborations, among others.

The ‘Make in India’ initiative for defence is also being carried out with 3 different treatments – Make I (90% government funded, with vendor), Make II (prototype development or upgradation of of equipment/system/platform, with zero government funding), and Make III (joining hands with foreign firms for production on Indian soil). Under the ‘Make in India’ program indigenous design, development and manufacture of defence equipments are being vigorously encouraged in the country, thereby reducing import of defence equipment.

The defence budget for the financial year 2022-23 is Rs 5,25,166 crore, an increase of Rs 46,970 crores or 9% over last year’s Rs 4,78,196 crore. As per the budget, Rs 1.52 lakh crore is being spent in capital expenditure, which relates to modernisation and infrastructure development of the Armed Forces only. Out of this 1.52 lakh crore, 68% of the amount is being spent on indigenous manufacturing to encourage investments and attract fresh capacity creation. An increase of more than 10% in back-to-back capital budgets expresses the continued push towards the modernisation of the armed forces. 25% of defence R&D budget is earmarked for private industries, startups and academia. Private industry is being encouraged to take up design and development of military platforms and equipment in collaboration with DRDO and other organizations through special purpose vehicle model.

Ease of doing business is helping indigenous defence production too. An independent nodal umbrella body created for meeting wide ranging testing and certification requirements of defence systems and platforms, is helping domestic industry through faster processes and cost-efficiency. Two positive indigenisation lists comprising 101 and 108 items were promulgated by Department of Military Affairs (DMA) under Ministry of Defence in recent months. In addition, to minimize import by DPSUs, Department of Defence Production has also notified a positive indigenisation list of things, in which 2500 items are already indigenized. Government is also considering adding more items for indigenous production. Timeline to add more items is reviewed continuously based on the requirements of Armed Forces as well as capability of domestic industry. Despite all these revolutionary efforts, India still needs to introduce many more reforms to rise to the fast changing security situations. Schemes like ‘Agnipath’ seem to be a product of the same restructuring thought.