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Thursday 16 August 2018

Brief Report On Joint Seminar On “India’s Coastal Security – Challenges, Concerns and the Way Ahead” By IMF,CASS,DDSS On July 18 At NISDA Hall DDSS



A joint seminar was organised by the Centre For Advanced Strategic Studies (CASS) and “Department of Defence and Strategic Studies Pune University”(DDSS) on 18 Jul 2018.The seminar was well attended.

Introductory Remarks 
 The function commenced with Deputy Director CASS, Major
General Shishir Mahajan introducing the speaker and importance of the subject.

This topic is relevant as India's has a long coastline of 7600 kms which is prone to infiltration of arms ammunition, smuggling ,illegal trade, poaching and many other security challenges. Inimical countries use coastline for carrying out anti national  activities, whenever they find that the land borders are difficult to penetrate. It is therefore important that all of us understand the importance of coastal security and recommend innovative ways to improve coastal security further, because resources for coastal security are always going to be inadequate.

Thereafter he introduced the speaker Brigadier Hemant Mahajan,YSM.
Brig Hemant Mahajan is a prolific writer and speaker on National Security related issues. He has served extensively in Counter Insurgency Operations in Insurgency and Terrorist prone areas of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and North East and has taken part in all important operations undertaken by the Army since 1975 till 31 Jan 2009.
His unit was awarded COAS Unit Citation, GOC-In-C Northern Command Unit Appreciation, 18 gallantry awards, including YSM for the officer.
His articles are regularly published in all leading Marathi newspapers .He has published more than 2500 articles in last nine years since retirement. He takes part in debates on TV Channels explaining correct positions of operations undertaken by security forces. He has published a number of books on internal and external security which are also available on all e platforms such as Google play store, Newshunt ,Amazon kindle Book Ganga, Flipcart, ,Marathi Srushti etc.

He then proceeded to introduce President of the function Cmde Rajan Vir.

Commodore Vir served as Naval ADC to the first President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, from 1956 to 1958. He then specialized in Navigation and Aircraft Direction and, later, he graduated from the Royal Naval Staff College, Greenwich, England in 1967. He was an Instructor at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, in South India, for three years ( 1967-70). Commodore Vir has served as Naval Attache at the Indian Embassies in Indonesia and Singapore. He has held senior appointments at Naval Headquarters, New Delhi, as the Director of Naval Intelligence and the Director of Personnel ( 1976-78).
Commodore Vir is the founder President of the Indian Maritime Foundation(IMF), a non-profit organization established in Pune in 1993, and with branches in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. Its aim is to raise awareness of the oceans in the public and to rekindle maritime consciousness and pride in them. Commodore Vir is the Adviser and Representative in India of the World Ship Trust of UK and the World Ocean Observatory, New York.

Prof.(Dr.) Vijay Khare
 Prof.(Dr.) Vijay Khare was the next speaker. As a head of DD SS he brought out, that the department along with CASS holds seminars on various facets  of  India's national security. He said that Brigadier Hemant Mahajan who is ‘Chair Professor Of Swatantra Veer Savarkar Chair Of National Security’ is an eminent expert on national security.The audience will definitely benefit from his practical experience of dealing with various issues related to national security.

Aspects Covered By Brigadier Hemant Mahajan,YSM
The main speaker Brigadier Hemant Mahajan was the next to speak. He spoke for about one hour and covered various facets of Coastal Security. Some of the important facets of his talk are covered in succeeding paras.
This was a research project carried out for the Indian Maritime Foundation( IMF).The study of the subject was based primarily on information gathered during the field trips to coastal states over the course of three years. The states visited were Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and the Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands. Data for the study has been obtained through personal observations as well as a combination of personal and group interviews. A number of naval, coast guard, and police personnel as well as officials of various ministries and departments engaged in the various dimensions of coastal security at the national, state and local levels have been interviewed including fishing community.
India’s western coast has been subjected to smuggling of gold, electronic goods, narcotics, arms ammunition, explosives and FICN, since long. Infiltration of Bangladeshis on east coast, smuggling of arms ammunition for Maoists, poaching  in island territories is a big threat. Various bomb blasts and 26/11terror attack  was an awakening call.
Comprehensive national maritime & coastal security policy, better management of maritime boundaries, EEZ, traffic and effective mechanism for coordination is required. Operational capabilities of Indian Navy ,Indian Coast Guard, Marine police, other agencies require to be improved further. Coastal States have to be empowered. Port security, security of offshore installations and Island territories is important. Actionable intelligence, good surveillance in territorial waters will prevent security breaches. International best practices should be followed to improve our coastal security.
A large number of coastal security exercises have been very useful. Many operations based on intelligence inputs are being launched to prevent breaches in security.Induction of Hovercrafts, UAVs, creation of a more effective network of intelligence through fishermen and national coastal security corps  is necessary.
Jointmanship among all stakeholders, improved intelligence collection, training, sharing of technology,MDA Cooperation, cross attachment with each other, joint exercises during high threat periods will benefit all.
As we hurtle though the opening decades of the current century, inadequate coastal-security will continue to impose large vulnerabilities upon India.
Many positives have evolved since last nine years because of on-the-job training and learning. Establishment of JOC, improved surveillance and infrastructure have improved coastal security.  Intelligence generated is better. A large number of coastal security exercises have been very useful. Many operations based on intelligence inputs are being launched to prevent breaches in security.
This seminar should generate informed discussion among all stake holders for further improving the coastal security. Emphasis upon practicable and viable action points, is important to reduce the effects of our vulnerabilities. The talk will  add to the body of knowledge for all  concerned with planning, legislating, coordinating, executing India’s coastal security.
Aspects Covered By Cmde Rajan Vir, President IMF
Chairman of the function Cmde Rajan Vir president of IMF was the last speaker. In a brief speech he brought out various activities that IMF is carrying out. He also brought out as to why this think tank was established.He complimented the speaker for doing adequate justice to this important topic.
IMF(http://indianmaritimefoundation.org/)  a think tank dealing with maritime security  runs Maritime Research Centre  along with a fellowship programme to support and encourage research on various facets of  maritime domain. We tasked  Brig Hemant Mahajan, a soldier at heart -with a flair for strategic and tactical research, to pen down  his research on “India’s Coastal Security—Challenges, Concerns & Way Ahead” mainly to generate informed discussion among all stake holders for improving the coastal security qualitatively.
The IMF, was established in 1993, as a non-profit NGO, by a group of like-minded retired officers from the Navy and the Merchant Marine. We had set the goal of raising awareness of the oceans and to rekindle maritime consciousness and pride in our people. To put it simply, our goal was, and remains, to make our people sea-minded. The foundation is run entirely by volunteers, who give their time, and often spend their own funds. Our enthusiasm to continue to pursuing our goal remains undiminished.

We cover a wide spectrum of maritime activities - in fact, all aspects about the oceans, e.g. our Navy, shipping and maritime trade, coastal security,  marine environment, history and heritage, marine art, underwater technology, and so on, in India as well as abroad.
Our membership is open to all, men and women, in India as well as overseas. We network with several maritime organizations actively, in India as well as overseas. Among the subjects of ocean studies- which has been our major focus for the past many years-is the protection of our marine environment.
We have also expanded our ambit of voluntary coverage in our coastal States, as well as to the hinterland of India,
The IMF, is actively engaged in coordinating in India, with the enthusiastic help of the ICG and the IN, the Coastal Cleanup. This is being undertaken by us in partnership with the world -renowned maritime NGO, the Ocean Conservancy, located at Washington DC.
At IMF we started the Maritime Research Centre along with this fellowship programme to support and encourage ideas like this and more in the maritime domain. This being the second book certainly addresses a very relevant topic related to the India’s Coastal Security—Challenges, Concerns & Way Ahead.
This book should be read by all the stakeholders and others, including the security forces, policy makers, corporate, security experts, technology providers, and many more.
The IMF is going to run numerous courses for students of national security on Maritime security. He hoped that the students of Pune University will benefit from this courses eminent personal eminent speakers from the IN. The Merchant Navy and other professionals dealing with Maritime security will cover various aspects of national security.
Interaction And Question Answer Session
 After the presidential speech the house was thrown open for interaction and question answer session. There was a tremendous response from the audience with regard to various facets of coastal security. Many issues requiring considerations where raised by the audience. Some useful recommendations were also made to improve the coastal security further. It was brought out that this topic is important and could be discussed at regular intervals because the type of challenges that arise from coastal security change very rapidly. The country and the security forces, the professionals who are involved in coastal security must remain updated so that we are always one step ahead of the enemy. The response to the joint seminar of  department of Defence studies, Centre for advanced strategic studies was tremendous.
The seminar  was concluded by Major general Shishir Mahajan  by thanking all concerned for making it successful event.


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