Pragyan Conclave 2020: Top brass of Indian Army and defence experts brainstormed the new age warfare for two days in national capital New Delhi. The two-day international seminar was jointly organised by Indian Army and the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), a Delhi based think tank affiliated to the Indian Army.
In his inaugural address, the Chief of the Army Staff General MM Narawane argued that despite the changing times, the nature of warfare remains constant but the character of warfare keeps evolving.
He said with the advent of new technology, armed forces need to be agile and keep pace with the continuous change.
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He also mentioned that the creation the post of Chief of Defence Staff has provided further impetus to the jointmanship between the three branches of Indian military.
The first session of the seminar focused on two issues – Evolving Warfare: an insight into the changing realm where the speakers discussed emerging trends of warfare. The second session deliberated over the topic of technological revolution: a seminal challenge.
The second session included discussions on information warfare in multi-domain operations, cyber and space warfare and implications of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics under new domains of battle space in 21st century warfare.
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Pragyan Conclave 2020
In his address, Lieutenant General SK Saini, Vice Chief of the Army Staff, argued that though the nature of conflict is enduring but character is changing. He asked the Indian Army to be prepared to conduct operations across entire spectrum of conflict.
While acknowledging the need to embrace new technologies as the world’s second largest army has embarked on a modernisation drive that includes induction of long range artillery guns, new main battle tank and future infantry combat vehicles (FICV), he warned against too much dependence on technology.
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His address was followed by two panel discussions. The first session deliberated over the issue of Transformation in the Battle Spaces.
The panelists focused on the changing form of 21st century battle space with special reference to implications of firepower and other force multipliers.
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Gen Narawane at Pragyan 2020.
Army discusses hybrid & sub-conventional wars
The second session focused on Hybrid and Sub-conventional Warfare, wherein the speakers deliberated on the contemporary challenges such as: operations in grey zone environment, urban warfare, non-state actors as well as the salience of technology and social media in these operations.
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The event brought together international and national domain experts on a single platform with a healthy participation from the three Services, Central Armed Police Forces, leading Think Tanks & Academic Institutions of the country and contributed immensely towards analysing the complex dynamics of the future warfare.
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“With Pragyan 2020, CLAWS which is an autonomous think tank affiliated to the Indian Army has achieved another milestone in actively furthering India’s strategic and military thinking in the changing security paradigm and the evolving nature of land warfare,” said the ministry of defence in a statement.
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