Military Innovation, More Needs to be done

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Military Innovation, More Needs to be done

In India, writes Tara Kartha  (Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi) “innovation by the armed forces has only recently got the attention it deserves, with the military mainly being seen as the defender and not a developer. That latter role was left to the ‘proper’ institutions, leading largely to an iron wall between the two, and no commercial outflow. In recent days, that is changing, in small dramatic ways. It could, with the proper push, be just the rocket science that the country needs to charge up its development graph.”

 

Focus on invention

There have been individual inventions, but the need is for an institutional framework.   Kartha notes the “Navy had signed an MoU with the Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU, which houses SASTRA) last year. The Army has done so too, as has the National Security Guard. Both the Army and Navy have partnered with the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) to allow frequent interactions with industry. The Army is also encouraging  new ideas within. Army officers have developed long-range reconnaissance  systems, technology for real-time tracking of patrols and indigenised artillery parts. Army’s Infantry School working with the DRDO developed a machine pistol in a matter of a few months. Whether these can be turned into exports is yet to be seen. The Indian Air Force (IAF) has singed an MoU with IIT Kanpur to boost aerospace technologies, while its Mehar Baba competition  for designing swarm drones is a game-changer, with the participants mentored throughout.”

 

Recent developments

All of this, states Kartha  “makes for a great start, provided the environment is created to innovate, particularly in marrying a defence application to commercial use……”

That is what Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team are bent on kickstarting. “The RRU under the Ministry of Home Affairs has an impressive track within a short time and represents the academic side, with its own incubation and innovation unit. The SIDM, originally set up with the encouragement of then defence minister Manohar Parrikar, has grown from about 200 members to more than 480. Then there is the ISpA(Indian Space Association), launched last month, joining big names like Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Group and One Web among others. This lies at the core of the Prime Minister’s vision of a ‘Digital India’. There is the Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC), under the Ministry of Defence…."

 

Suggestions

While praising the effort, Kartha  writes this is not enough. “First, consider that the delegation of financial powers to the Services, though a huge jump from previous years, is inadequate for the kind of innovation required….

“Second, there are too many cooks, all stirring the same pot. One overarching autonomous institution may be preferable, with the mandate to pull in anyone from anywhere…..

“Third, the services themselves need to provide the thrust. The Navy owes its success to the push given by the outgoing Chief Admiral Karambir Singh, and has got its NIIO (Naval Indigenisation and Innovation Organisation) fully up with an ‘across the service’ presence. The others have yet to catch up due to multiple reasons…..”

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