Even the Navy is getting an upgrade with the approval of “Project 75”, where a series of advanced Scorpene submarines are being built, along with the induction of new naval attack ships INS Khanderi, INS Kalvari and others to the Indian Navy. In the same way, French Rafale fighter jets are being procured and are being inducted to the Indian Air Force. These will be on the lines of the Russian Sukhoi, which has helped the Air Force in innumerable ways. The Committee set up under the Chairmanship of Naresh Chandra gave its recommendations on the ways and means to ensure effective Defence Management which called for a better collaboration between the various Armed Forces. This enhanced collaboration can already been seen in the annual inter-service military exercise called the Theatre Readiness Operational Exercise (TROPEX) involving the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Coast Guard which is designed to test the inter-operability and combat readiness of these Forces. Not just the TROPEX, but inter-national and inter-country military exercises are being organized annually to ensure inter-operability at a global scale, for example, the annual Malabar Trilateral Exercise between the naval forces of India, Japan and the United States. Even India and China have their own annual joint military exercise called Hand-in-Hand. This ensures an increased cooperation and mutual understanding of various countries, which may subtly increase friendship and strengthen the relationship. Such global initiatives are very common, especially in a post-Cold War era, most of the initiatives try to increase the collaboration between various countries, and many other initiatives try to control and restrict the proliferation of weapons. The Australia Group is one such initiative whose sole purpose is to reduce the usage of Chemical Weapons. The countries of this Group try to stop the trade in Chemical weapons and are pro-active in destroying the storage of chemical weapons in various countries. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which won the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize works to prohibit the proliferation of chemical weapons and aims to destroy any stack held by any country. In the same way, another grouping by the name of Wassenar Agreement was created to monitor the trade and transport in conventional arms and weapons. The Hague Code of Conduct and the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) works to control and monitor the production and trade of ballistic missiles made by the signatory countries. In a similar way, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) restricts the trade of nuclear fissile material in the global scenario. India’s security strategy presently is to become a part of these four Agreements to ensure that it equips itself with the latest technology to ward away and deter any forms of external and internal aggression. The joining of these four groups also would enhance India’s global hegemony which would further enable her to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council later.

“Witnessing a guy I fired 3 days earlier, walk out of our office building with a computer monitor tucked under his arm, is something you never think you’d have to deal with, but lo and behold, here we were.” This was about 8 years ago when the American economy was working its way through the recession. Our department had received an email from corporate to lay some people off. This is the hardest thing you have to do as a supervisor, so naturally, I was dreading it. I spent a couple days pouring over everyone’s numbers and client lists and narrowed down the pool to three people. The first two went pretty smoothly, given the circumstances. The third was simply weird. This guy was a transfer from another branch, and from his first day, he made quite a memorable impression. We held a meet-and-greet for him, and he turned it into some sort of impromptu recruitment seminar for this vitamin supplement company that he had signed up to earn extra cash. He spent the whole meeting talking about these all-natural meal-replacement pills that “give you stamina, and leave you feeling great!” Anyway, it was pretty much a Ponzi scheme, where he’d sign us up, and we were responsible for signing up other people, who we’d in turn be “managing”…it was a strange thing to do…Especially on your first day. So, when I had to let him go, he must’ve heard about the layoffs, because he came in very calm, which was different for him. And then he QUIT! Which completely baffled me. When I asked him ‘why?’ he sort of shrugged and went, “well, my vitamin gig is really taking off, and I think it’s time for me to focus on that full time.” Now, this guy was a tool, but I didn’t want him to leave with nothing, so I offered to let him go, so he could at least receive unemployment. Without a word, he just smiled, shook his head, and proceeded to laugh as he left my office. I briefly considered calling the police, to have an officer on the premises, just in case this guy was actually a psychopath. When I came out of my office, his desk was cleared, and he was gone for good…or so I thought.

The most intense struggle is against our neighbouring brother, Pakistan, with whom we have already indulged in three and a half wars. Tensions seem to be never-ending and any improvements in peace talks are marred with disappointing incidents like the Uri attack or the Pathankot attack, which we retaliate again through surgical strikes and by bringing up the Indus Water Treaty and Balochistan issues. Construction of the Kishenganga, Ratle and Baglihar dams on the cross-border rivers are becoming an issue as well. But, the recent victory of India in the International Court of Justice gives us a moral advantage in the international scenario. To also ensure that a minimum deterrence is established, India came up with the Cold Start doctrine, which aims to destroy all important strategic locations in Pakistan, if instances of unwanted cross-border terrorism occur. Not just cross-border terrorism, but also border demarcation issues through the Sir Creek estuary and the Thalweg doctrine are major impediments in the bilateral relationship with Pakistan. To further establish deterrence, India has the Nuclear Triad - Ability to fire nuclear weapons through land, water and air. And at the same time, to build better friendship, India also undertakes Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) and has the ‘No-First Use’ nuclear attack policy. To analyse all these trends the Central Government had set up a Committee under Madhukar Gupta to understand ways and means of border protection, especially along the Indo-Pakistan border.