The United Service Institution of India was founded in 1870 by a soldier scholar, Colonel (later Major General) Sir Charles MacGregor. The story of its growth is the story of the growth of the Indian Armed Forces. It was founded for ‘furtherance of interest and knowledge in the art, science and literature of the Defence Services.’
Talk by the Chief of the Naval Staff- 20 March 2023
REPORT
The United Service Institution (USI) of India organised a talk on ‘Transformation Imperatives for a Future Ready Indian Navy’ on 20 March 2023, delivered by Admiral R Hari Kumar, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC and the Chief of the Naval Staff. Major General BK Sharma, AVSM, SM and Bar (Retd), the Director General USI, welcomed the CNS and in his opening remarks he highlighted that Navy has a major role to play certain foundational agreements not only with the United States of America, but with many other Western countries. He focused on the utilisation budget management, human resource development issues and professional community education initiatives that Indian Navy has embarked upon. He articulated on the role of Indian Navy which is expanding which would be a total rebirth of maritime philosophy.
The CNS in his talk emphasised that the transformation for Navy is an ongoing process; it is focused on multi-faceted and multi-layered approach. For the transformation he focused on five fundamentals with eleven priority areas. He focused on broad-based partnership, organisational structure, and human resource developments. He also talked about future oriented organisations, induction of women in the ranks etc.
The CNS covered the evolving three ‘S’ to overcome challenges: Strategic Driver which is a long and protracted game for which we require political and economic rebalancing, security factors as how the technology is rapidly evolving and the developments like AI, machine learning etc. and silent paradigm.
He concluded that for assured national security, maritime security will have significant ramifications. So there are some expectations that must be met. But in doing so the path to the future is not without challenges. He stressed on Climate change, which is contributing to the uncertainty of characterising the world of today and that off tomorrow. So, the melting of the Arctic ice, threatening loads of islands, Climate change challenges will impact global interactions. In fact, it could remain or become the most serious security challenges. At last he said we are delivering what we promise. The talk was attended by a distinguished audience comprising of serving and veteran officers and members of the strategic community and a large number of participants joined through digital platform.
The event culminated with an intensive interactive Q&A session.
