Sajid Raina
New Delhi, Sep 22 : Calling for a whole-of-nation approach to make India a global leader in next-generation defence technologies Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Monday urged academia to scale innovation for making the country self-reliant.
Addressing a tri-services symposium here, CDS Chauhan, according to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) said, “The changing nature of modern warfare driven by convergence across kinetic and non-kinetic domains has necessitated advanced and integrated technological solutions.”
He emphasised the critical role of academia, start-ups and industry in developing indigenous capabilities across platforms, weapons, networks and doctrines to meet future operational demand.
Meanwhile, in a statement, a Defence Ministry spokesman said that the inaugural edition of the Tri-Services Academia Technology Symposium (T-SATS) was held at the Manekshaw Centre at Delhi Cantonment, synergising the services-academia R&D ecosystem for development of niche and futuristic technologies tailored for the Indian armed forces.
It said that the symposium was inaugurated by Gen Chauhan and the event witnessed participation from directors and heads of departments of academic and premier R&D institutions, along with students from 62 institutes including IISc, IITs, IIITs and private technology institutes.
The CDS also inaugurated a technology exhibition showcasing 43 selected innovative exhibits by academia.
“These innovations were evaluated by subject matter experts from various technology domains of the three services for their potential military applications.
Projects showing promise will be considered for R&D collaboration and funding support in future,” the statement said.
A major highlight of the day was a series of 95 structured one-on-one meetings between academic innovators and service representatives. These closed-door sessions provided a platform for academia to pitch R&D proposals and receive strategic guidance on converting ideas into military-use cases, fostering a collaborative and results-oriented environment, it said, adding that these meetings will continue on Tuesday.
Also, MoUs were signed with various academic institutes, including Ajeenkya DY Patil University, Gujarat National Law University, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Nirma University, Oriental Institute of Science and Technology, Rashtriya Raksha University and National Research Development Corporation, it said.
Themed ‘Vivek va Anusandhan se Vijay’ or ‘victory through wisdom and research’, the symposium, a first of its kind, is a significant step towards fostering deeper integration between academic research capabilities and defence technology requirements, the statement said.
By connecting the armed forces with the vast untapped intellectual and technical capital within Indian academia, T-SATS aims to build a “sustainable and strategic partnership to co-create future-ready solutions for national security,” it said—(KNO)
