The media is agog with the report of a cyber attack in India’s largest civil nuclear facility - the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) in Tamil Nadu. Cyberspace provides a new opportunity for determined adversaries to wreak havoc at nuclear facilities possibly without ever setting foot inside the nuclear plant. If the network that runs the machines and software controlling the nuclear reactor are compromised, cyber attacks on nuclear power plants could have physical effects. This can ...Read more >

The study of devices that perceive their environment and define a course of action that will maximize its chance of achieving a given goal. A subset of artificial intelligence, in which machines learn how to complete a certain task without being explicitly programmed to do ...Read more >

In 2004 I went to deliver a talk and chair a session on Cyber War at College of Defence Management, Secunderabad. After the session one of the participant officers of Higher Defence Management Course who was doing his dissertation on a relevant topic engaged me in a discussion that North Korea has no internet connection and how do they do business. My answer that in today’s world no country can afford to have complete disconnect seemed not to satisfy him. Of course Sony happened ...Read more >

China was the world’s largest economy in 1820, accounting for an estimated 32.9 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP). But foreign and civil wars, internal strife, weak and ineffective governments, natural and manmade disasters, and distortive economic policies caused China to fall behind. China’s policies kept the economy poor, stagnant, centrally controlled, vastly inefficient and relatively isolated from the global economy. By 1952, China’s share of global GDP had ...Read more >

With the convergence of computer and communications technology a vast, interdependent physical and electronic network has emerged which connected government, commercial, scientific and educational infrastructures including critical infrastructures. This rapid increases in interconnectivity have facilitated enhanced communications, economic growth and the delivery of services critical to the public welfare. ...Read more >

China published a white paper on July 24 this year Titled ‘China’s National Defence in the New Era’. It aims to help the international community understand China’s national defence strategies under President Xi Jinping. This explains the practice, purposes and importance of China’s attempts to build a fortified national defense and a strong military. Some nation states publish their National Security Strategy and National Defence Strategy from time to time generally coinciding ...Read more >

“Warfare which involves the integrated application of all national capabilities, with technology playing a major role to degrade, disrupt or destroy systems/ targets, while ensuring minimum physical contact of own ...Read more >

Every few years the U.S. defense community latches on to a new term that influences the efforts of the armed services, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, and the various agencies, labs, think tanks and others responsible for building and maintaining the U.S. military enterprise. Words move money. Every few years, often at the beginning of an administration, a new buzzword emerges: “revolution in military affairs,” “transformation,” “third offset,” or even ...Read more >

The ability to create and use new technologies is the source of economic strength and military security. Technology and the capacity to create new technologies are the basis of information age power. 5G as the cornerstone of a new digital environment is the focal point for the new competition. China’s success in creating globally competitive tele-communications firms has led the Chinese government’s desire to seize leadership in next generation Information Technology (IT). China is ...Read more >

The location of Afghanistan is geostrategically critical. It is a land bridge that links China, Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East. Geo-politically, Afghanistan is located conveniently close to “the soft underbelly” of Russia and China and its neighbor Iran. Will the Americans leave this geo-strategically important location? However the country is constantly at war for several decades. For the country to prosper Afghanistan must have some semblance of peace. For ending the 17 ...Read more >

At least 44 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed and 70 injured when a Maruti Eeco car laden with explosives rammed into a CRPF bus—part of a massive convoy—in Awantipora town of Pulwama District in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) on 14 February, in one of the deadliest terror attacks yet on government forces in J&K. The incident took place at Lethpora, about 30 km from Srinagar on the Jammu-Srinagar highway around 3.15 pm. The scene of the attack is not very far ...Read more >

The Quad is a mechanism which facilitates dialogue between four major democracies within the Indo-Pacific region, Australia, Japan, India, and the US, on issues of regional security. The Quad believes in principles of openness, freedom of movement, and respect for the rules-based international order. Quad is a dialogue mechanism, Indo-Pacific is a concept. Quad does not define Indo-Pacific. Quad is not an ...Read more >

US Secretary of Defence, James Mattis and Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, accompanied by Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, met with India’s Foreign Minister, Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, at New Delhi on September 6, 2018, in what was dubbed the “two plus two” summit. Three months have passed since that meeting. The ongoing trade war between the USA and China and recent development in Quad have critical bearing on the ...Read more >

Today is the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The current period of rapid, simultaneous and systemic transformations driven by advances in science is reshaping industries, blurring geographical boundaries, challenging existing regulatory frameworks and even redefining what it means to be human. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the software engine that drives the Fourth Industrial Revolution. AI is creating targeted marketing, safer travel through self-driving cars, smarter weapons ...Read more >

Chinese President Xi Jinping has made it clear that his objective for China is to emerge as a ‘cyber superpower’. China wants to be the world’s largest nation in cyberspace and also one of the most powerful. The information technology revolution has produced both momentous opportunities and likely vulnerabilities for china. China is home of largest number of ‘netizens’ in the world. It also hosts some of the world’s most vibrant and successful technology companies. It also remains ...Read more >