TASK FORCE..

Why this Task Force?

Naresh Chandra

It was setup by Mohan (PM) in 2011, and gave the report in 2012 (somewhere in August) to review the current the national security system to suggest measures to strengthen the national security apparatus. Naresh Chandra is a retired IAS and rest of the team has diplomats, defense experts, RAW, IB, army, navy officers etc.

Recommendations of Naresh Chandra Task Force on National security

[not exhaustive]

On the Enemies of India

On China

• China will become militarily more assertive and nationalistic as its economic and military power grows.
• China will continue to utilize Pakistan as part of its grand strategy for containing India in a “South Asian box”.
• United states will become more circumspect and accommodating in dealing with China.
• Therefore India should shift focus of national security strategy from Pakistan to China.
• Army be given management of Sino-Indian borders and India should become more assertive in dealing with China.

On Pakistan

• Pakistani military hasnot given up the use of radical Islamic groups to promote terrorism in both India and Afghanistan
• biggest concern is Pakistan’s ambition to use Afghanistan for strategic depth.
• India should spare no effort, politically, diplomatically, economically and through military assistance to ensure that Pakistani efforts to convert Afghanistan into an extremist run, pliant and client state are frustrated.

On Naxalites

Secret Talks

• government give up its pre-condition of cessation of violence for opening talks with Naxalites.
• Instead, Government  should try to secretly reach the pro-talks elements within the top Naxal leadership and tell them that the government will not be cowed down by their acts of violence and that dialogue is the best option to redress their grievances.
• Even if the peace efforts do not lead to solution, it’ll  lead to confusion and division within the “pro-talk” and “anti-talk” elements in Naxal leadership.
• Even during the talks and negotiations, the Area domination will have to continue and forces must keep track of the Maoist elements who come overground for the talks. [because in 2004 a short-lived ceasefire-cum-talks between the Andhra Pradesh establishment and CPI (Maoist) was conveniently used by the naxalites to regroup and rearm themselves.]

More army presence in Naxal areas

• Army should not involve in direct combat with naxals but army should establish more training institutes in Naxal areas.
• And then, from those traninig institutes, army should reach out to the tribals residing in surrounding villages by offering them facilities like schools, medical care and potable drinking water. This may help in eroding the support base of the Naxalites.
• Army training schools proposed in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra will help train the central paramilitary forces engaged in counter-Naxal duties in jungle warfare.

Make More Institutions

Advanced Projects Agency (APA)

• to undertake high-risk futuristic military research.

• The head of APA will act as Scientific Advisor to Defense Minister. [scientific advisor to the Raksha Mantri (SA to RM).]

• APA will be assisted by
  • UGC (University Grants Commission)
  • CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research)
  • BARC ( Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
  • TIFR (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research)
  • Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

• APA would fund research in institutions like IITs, universities and private laboratories.
• APA will not be involved with DRDO
• DRDO must assume responsibility for managing the DRDO’s laboratories and research centres and ensuring the on-time delivery of projects undertaken there.

Bureau of politico-military affairs

• Defence ministry should set up a bureau of politico-military affairs
• this Bureau would be liaison with the ministry of external affairs (MEA) on issues and actions having foreign policy applications
• ministry of external affairs (MEA) should not work in isolation from other ministries, particularly with respect to securing access to strategic materials, hydrocarbons etc.

Defense university and Think Tank

• establish a National defense University (NDU)

• create a separate think-tank on internal security.
• A sub-group on defense technology, comprising representatives of DRDO, military, private sector, academia, military and other stakeholders.

FDI in defense

• Right now only 26%
• Need to increase it to 49%
• So that we can manufacture items in India, using the  latest technologies already developed by foreign entities.

Get more Staff [Personnel]

Overall

• Amend the Prevention of Corruption Act to reassure honest officers that they’ll not be harassed for making defence equipment purchases.
• Induct more foreign language experts into the intelligence and security agencies.
• Allow more cross-postings between  Service HQ (Army, Navy, Airforce) and Ministry of Defence

Diplomats

• The ministry of external affairs (MEA) doesn’t have enough diplomats to “anticipate, analyze and act on contemporary challenges”
• quality of new recruits (through UPSC) is often uneven
  • (for example UPSC topper Alok Ranjan Jha became IFS but allegedly got drunk and misbehaved with Air India staff in New York and thus he was recalled. Some other IFS officers showing their ‘mardaangi’ by beating up wives and maids and appearing in newspaper headlines every now and then.)
  • several recruits refuse to join the MEA.
  • It requires huge time and effort to train new IFS officers and making them proficient in English and other foreign languages. [IFS training takes around  3 years, while IAS/IPS  training done in about 2 years]
• Therefore, Ministry of External Affairs should accept officials from civil services and armed forces on short duration (five years) deputations rather than solely relying on UPSC.
• Indian embassies and missions, which are required to play a key role in issues such as acquisition of raw materials, hydrocarbons, should be staffed with “consultants with the requisite technical and technological background.

Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC)

Need COSC to keep an eye on China and Pak

• He will have a fixed tenure of two years and will be rotated among the three services (Army, Navy, Airforce).
• He’ll be in charge of making net assessment about the strengths and weaknesses of India’s adversaries—China and Pakistan—in a holistic manner
• Currently, the three services make their individual assessments [about China and Pak], which remains buried in files that never see the light of the day.

Special Forces

• a separate command structure under the chairman chiefs of staff committee.
• These special force will be dealing with foreign backed proxy wars and combat search and rescue operation or handling hostage crisis. [something like US NAVY SEALS that killed Bin Laden.]

( COPIED FROM MRUNAL)...

I AM WHAT I AM...

Dear Friends ,

Every day early morning i go for jogging and while returning back to my home i generally stop near a tea-stall ( Thapari / jhuggi) for a strong ginger tea. Today an interesting incident took place which i wanted to share with you all.

In morning i felt that winter is going to start. I wore my wind shitter and moved on. I jogged for few kilometers and went to tea-stall. The person saw me and started preparing tea for me. He gave me a smile and said in a cheerful welcoming manner " Good Morning Anna " . I replied and started reading a news paper which was kept beside me. Although this is a road side tea-stall but one can find various news papers here like regional newspaper ,Hindi newspaper , The Hindu , The Times of India , Hitwada , Nav bharat and few mores.

I just started reading news paper immediately a boy came near to me and started staring me.

Boy was in his school uniform. He was of around 8 or 10 years  . Firstly i ignored him but he was continuously staring me at last i asked..

Me - What happened?

Boy - .........................................( said something in telugu)..

Me - Telgu matledu . ( it means i do not know Telugu). I learned this to tell people that either speak in English or Hindi.

Boy - Hindi aata tumko? ( Do you know Hindi?)

Me - Yes..

Again i asked..

Me - Is everything fine with you? Why you are continuously staring me?

Boy - I am not staring you . My mother , my sister and I have planned to gift a mobile phone to my Dad on his upcoming birthday. So i was trying to read the advertisement on the news paper which you are reading . Is Nokia LUMIA ZOOM a good phone to gift my father? Do you have any idea ?

Me - It's very new in the market. I think it is quiet expensive also. Why you want to go for Nokia LUMIA only?

( Tea seller called me - Anna Ookati chai...I took my tea cup and asked the boy )

Me - Do you want something?

Boy - yes . One cup of horlicks... No No No... nothing...

Me - what happened?

Boy - My mother told me not to eat anything if any stranger offers.

Me - ohhhh.. true. but u can speak to stranger na?

Boy - Yes...

Me - So why you want to go for LUMIA???

Boy - Because I phone is very costly....and GALAXY is not that much good.

(  I was like wha............... For a second i started thinking that he is Richie of Richie Rich Cartoon. He is a school boy who is very young to talk on these topics . He is just a student but a second thought came to my mind that why a child like him will stand in a tea-stall.)

Me - What is your budget bhai??????

Boy - what is budget?

Me - I mean how much money do you have?

Boy - why you are asking this? ( Boy gave me very suspicious looks)

Me - Because all this cell phones are too expensive and you are very young for all this discussion.Let your mother decide this things. You concentrate on what kind of cake you want to order on your father's birthday.

Boy - My Rickshaw wala will come in few minutes.

me - Ok.

Boy - I do not like to go in that rickshaw. My friends tease me.

Me - why?

Boy - Because they all come in  expensive cars and good buses.

Me - So?

Boy - They will come to know that i am not that much rich and they will start avoiding me.

( Now i got the clear picture that the boy belongs to a middle class family but his parents admitted him in a very good school which is quiet famous for providing luxurious facilities and he learnt all this things like I phone , Nokia Lumia Zoom   from his rich friends and he is trying to show off to his friends that his family gifted an expensive hand set to his father on his birthday)

Me - Kid , Always love and believe what you are? Do not try to show off and  lie in front of any one. Those people who are with you because of your money and gadgets are not your friends. U know by doing this you are also dis-respecting your parents.

Boy - Hmmm...( He didn't got any thing what i said but still gave me a nod to make me fill satisfied)

( Rickshaw came and he said bye to me....)

Always respect and love what you are. No one can ever replace you because you are simply " THE BEST".


JAI HIND..

Cyberterrorism

What is Cyber terrorism?

- According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, cyberterrorism is any "premeditated, politically motivated attack against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data which results in violence against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents."

- the politically motivated use of computers and information technology to cause severe disruption or widespread fear.

- Cyberterrorism is the use of Internet based attacks in terrorist activities, including acts of deliberate, large-scale disruption of computer networks, especially of personal computers attached to the Internet, by the means of tools such as computer viruses.

cyber-terrorist - a programmer who breaks into computer systems in order to steal or change or destroy information as a form of cyber-terrorism

After reading all this definition , explanation and what one can depict from the above pictures is that - Terrorist or any other Anti-social elements can use various ways to establish unrest , disturbance in any peaceful area. Example - ( Kokrajhar(Assam) violence case in which large scale exodus took place )

Developed , Developing nations and terrorist organizations knows it very well that the high potential of damage can be done by using this ever growing technology.

I doubt for our country -

"In early March, suspected Chinese hackers breached the computers of India's top military organisation, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in what was touted to be amongst the biggest such security breaches in the country's history. 

Defence Minister A.K. Antony ordered a probe into the matter, though an official statement denied any sensitive file had been compromised.

India has seen many such attacks on its critical installations and the misuse of social media and Internet has brought home the threat of cyber-terrorism, which cyber security experts say the country is poorly equipped to handle.

Experts believe the country is vulnerable to such cyber-terrorism attacks with some countries and vested interest groups bent on espionage and destruction.

According to Supreme Court lawyer and leading cyber law expert Pavan Duggal, while the threat of cyber attacks remains "imminent", the country lacks an institutionalised mechanism of a cyber army to deal with the threat.

"The recent DRDO breach was a classical case of cyber war attack rather than mere hacking. It was an attack on India's critical information infrastructure. Cyber warfare as a phenomenon is not covered under the Indian cyber law. Clearly, the country's cyber security is not in sync with the requirements of the times," Duggal told IANS.

Over the past few years, India has witnessed a growing number of cyber assaults, with government departments, particularly defence establishments, coming under attack.
Last year, hacker group 'Anonymous' carried out a series of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against a number of government websites, in retaliation against the alleged Internet censorship.

Hackers from Algeria also carried out an attack on websites run by the DRDO, the Prime Minister's Office and various other government departments last year. A group called 'Pakistan Cyber Army' had also hacked into several Indian websites.
"The threat landscape remains very threatening," said cyber law and cyber security expert Prashant Mali.
"India is awakening to the global threat of cyber warfare now. Our cyber security is still ineffective as mass awakening towards it is missing or inadequate. Even though NTRO and DRDO are mandated with cyber offensive work, only time will show effectiveness of these organisations," Mali told IANS.

Usually, cyber attacks follow the same modus operandi. An email is sent to an individual, or small group, within an organisation. Efforts are made to make the email look legitimate, that is, it will appear as though it was sent by somebody the recipient trusts and the content of the mail will often be related to the recipient's area of interest.

In order to install the malware, the user is tricked into either clicking a malicious link or launching a malicious attachment. In the more sophisticated attacks, the attacker will use a new "zero day vulnerability", in which attackers send email attachments which when opened exploit vulnerabilities in the Web browsers.

According to CERT-In (the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team), which is a government-mandated information technology security organization, an estimated 14,392 websites in the country were hacked in 2012 (till October).

In 2011, as many as 14,232 were hacked, while the number of websites hacked in 2009 stood at 9,180. About 16,126 websites were hacked in 2010.

With cyber security impacting the country's security, Shivshankar Menon, the national security adviser, announced last month that the government is putting in place a national cyber security architecture to prevent sabotage, espionage and other forms of cyber threats.

"The past few years have witnessed a dramatic shift in the threat landscape. The motivation of attackers has moved from fame to financial gain and malware has become a successful criminal business model with billions of dollars in play. We have now entered a third significant shift in the threat landscape, one of cyber-espionage and cyber-sabotage," Shantanu Ghosh, vice president at India Product Operations-Symantec corporation, which developed Norton AntiVirus, told IANS.

Ghosh said cyber security questions are no longer an exotic topic focussing primarily on spam messages and personal computers but have started to impact on the national security and defence capability of a country.

Rikshit Tandon, consultant at Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and advisor to the Cyber Crime Unit of the Uttar Pradesh Police, said: "Cyber terrorism is a grave threat not only to India but to the world."
"It can come to any country and, yes, proactive measures by government and consortium of countries needs to be taken as a collective effort and policy since internet has no geographical boundaries," Tandon told IANS.

Experts say the country spends a small amount of money on cyber security. The budget allocation towards cyber security was Rs.42.2 crore ($7.76 million) for 2012-13, as against Rs.35.45 crore in 2010-11.

In comparison, the US spends several billion dollars through the National Security Agency, $658 million through the Department of Homeland Security and $93 million through US-CERT in 2013.
(Haris Zargar can be reached at haris.z@ians.in)

South Korea's hosting the third international conference on cyberspace from October 16-18 with close to 90 countries, including India, participating in the event. South Korean ambassador Lee Joon Gyu spoke with Sachin Parashar about the conference's agenda including cybersecurity, tackling online terrorism - and India's significant role:
 
Could you tell us about this conference on cyberspace?

Well, cyberspace and the advance of the internet have brought new modes for the exchange of ideas and engines for economic growth - but the benefit of cyberspace has also brought threats. With the absence of clear rules and norms, it's resulted in nuisances like spam mails and spywares.

At a national and international level, cyberterrorism and industrial hacking could undermine the very foundations of the modern world. With this recognition of benefits and threats, the 'Conference on Cyberspace 2013' has been held in Seoul, South Korea, addressing the issue through the theme of global prosperity through open and secure cyberspace.
 
How is this different from earlier conferences held in London and Budapest?

The Republic of Korea, once a war-torn country, was able to achieve rapid economic growth. It is always willing to lend a helping hand to other developing countries and share its experiences with other nations.
In this respect, Korea extended a most cordial invitation to the countries of Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East that previously did not attend. Through such participation, it is hoped that more robust discussions on cyberspace issues can be made.
In particular, capacity building has been newly introduced to utilise the vast potential of cyberspace for developing countries.
 
How much of a concern is cyber-security - and how do you hope to address issues like hacking and cyber-terrorism?

I believe the Seoul conference is quite timely. The global community is increasingly threatened with the disruption of internet and online transactions through computer hacking, illegal espionage and eavesdropping - and cyber-terrorism that can threaten modern society.
But at the same time, the continuous improvement of techno-logy provides evermore potential for its benefit to economic growth and development. It is at this juncture that the Seoul conference attempts to harness its great potential and at the same time, curtail side effects. The agenda discusses public-private partnership and international cooperation against security threats using developed ICT technologies.
 
What role do you see India playing in issues related to cyberspace?

India is definitely a forerunner and is expected to contribute greatly to the field of cyberspace - as a world leader in computer software, solutions and other IT-related areas, India commands respect globally for its innovative and creative approach. India also boasts a huge number of world-class programmers and experts in the IT field. With such expertise, it is highly anticipated that India will bring a large number of talented experts and contribute to the productive discussions of many issues that the world faces in the field of cyberspace.
Korea is globally acclaimed as possessing one of the most wired societies in the world, while producing top-notch IT hardware. India is a global powerhouse in software areas. Much can be achieved if the two countries cooperate.
Korea and India already have close relations, having forged strategic partnership relations in 2010. The bilateral annual trade volume stands at $20 billion. The two countries are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year - and are looking forward to a continued enhancement and deepening of relations.


" YOUR FUTURE IS CREATED BY WHAT YOU DO TODAY  NOT TOMORROW" .. 

JAI HIND..