Directions: Read the given passage carefully to answer the following questions. Each question will have five alternatives as its answer. Choose the correct option as your answer.

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Emerging technologies, an euphemism for capabilities that rely on a combination of cyber technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), unmanned systems, and advanced computing, is in vogue among most militaries. The Indian military is seemingly alive to this development. At the Chanakya Defence Dialogue, the Chief of the Army Staff, General Manoj Pande, said that the Army had identified 45 niche technologies in the field of military applications. Similarly, under ‘UDAAN’, the Indian Air Force (IAF) is using AI, cyber and virtual reality to address its operational, logistical, and training needs. The Navy, too, says that it is moving forward with emerging technologies, which includes an Integrated Unmanned Roadmap, while also encouraging indigenisation under project ‘Swavlamban’.

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Not to be left out, the Defence Ministry, through ‘AIDef’, has showcased its initiatives in this realm, which includes the Defence AI Council and the Defence AI Project Agency. Both these efforts are aimed towards incorporating AI into various allied organisations, such as Defence Public Sector Undertakings and the Defence Research and Development Organisation. However well-intentioned these efforts may be, the Ministry and the services need to think more creatively about their approach to emerging technologies. More specifically, for these initiatives to be successful, the military must be cognisant that technology is not a silver bullet and should not be imagined as a ‘plug and play’ — readily adjusted to existing practices. Instead, it needs to be accompanied by organisational and doctrinal changes and a willingness to share data with the civilian environment.

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To some, emerging technologies are just the latest fad. Indeed, most accounts of the Russia-Ukraine war attest to the old-fashioned dominance of artillery, manoeuvre warfare, and infantry tactics. At a more conceptual level, however, emerging technologies represent a dilemma that militaries have faced since time immemorial — how to best respond to change. Effectively integrating emerging technologies requires the military to work more closely with civilians than ever before. The scholar Michael Raska identifies this aspect of “collaborative defence”, whereby the military partners with scientists, academics, technologists, entrepreneurs and the wider industry, as critical in incorporating such capabilities. From that perspective, India’s defence organisations and the military still have some way to go.

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To be fair, the Indian military’s focus on these emerging technologies is not new. India’s first drone platforms were inducted in the late-1990s by the Army followed by more procurements in the 2000s by the IAF and Navy. Military leaders have recognised the cyber threat for some time, pointing to issues such as ‘information warfare’. Through its indigenous space programme, India has launched communication satellites to improve its military communications capabilities. GSAT-7, a Navy-specific communication satellite, was launched in 2013, and GSAT-7A for the IAF in 2018. In the same year, the government established the Defence Cyber Agency and the Defence Space Agency to address threats from new domains. While these are welcome developments, there are still significant shortcomings in the military’s approach to this domain.