PM Modi Warns Armed Forces Against Cyber Challenges

At the Swavlamban Seminar, the PM Modi warned the Forces against the up and coming security challenges

Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned the army, the navy and the airforce of the new challenges that they face. On July, 18th as the PM addressed the Swavlamban Seminar, he said that attempts to compromise India’s security within and outside the nation must be thwarted effectively. The new challenge against a secure India is “disinformation”. At the naval seminar, Mr. Modi stood for the nation as a whole in combating the challenges posed to the nation’s security. Exposing the forces to the bane of technological innovation, Mr. Modi asserted the armed forces to enhance the nation’s military capacity. Mr. Modi and the BJP regime are usually used synonymously. But both or either always stood for India’s self-reliance in the defence sector. As the yearly budget suggests, aggrandising the defence sector has been a focus for the government. However, there are numerous threats that still need capable combat. Warning the forces PM Modi said that the outline of national security has become widespread and the challenges are moving towards space, cyberspace, social space and the economic sphere. “We also have to intensify our war against forces challenging India’s self-confidence, our self-reliance.” He said. He further added, “As India is establishing itself on the global stage, there are constant attacks through misinformation, disinformation and false publicity, etc. Keeping faith, the forces harming India’s interests, whether in the country or abroad, have to be thwarted in their every effort. National defence is no longer limited to borders, but is much broader.” “Therefore it is equally necessary to make every citizen aware about it,” he added. The prime minister said: “As we are moving forward with the ‘whole of the government’ approach for a self-reliant India, similarly, the ‘whole of the nation’ approach is the need of the hour for the defence of the nation.” He said that the “collective national consciousness of various people of India is the strong basis of security and prosperity”. The seminar was organized by the Naval Innovation and cyberspace Organisation (NIIO) and the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM). In his address, the prime minister said his government has developed a new defence ecosystem in the country to boost domestic defence manufacturing. In the last 4-5 years, Modi said, the defence imports have come down by about 21 percent and the country is moving fast from being the biggest defence importer to becoming a big exporter. The prime minister said Rs 13,000 crore worth of defence export was achieved last year and more than 70 per cent of it was from the private sector. He lamented that during the initial decades of Independence, there was no focus on the development of defence production and research and development were severely limited as it was restricted to the government sector. “Innovation is critical and it has to be indigenous. Imported goods can’t be a source of innovation,” he said, stressing the need for a change in the mindset of “attraction for imported goods”.