India rethinks relevance of foot soldier in modern warfare

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

India is rethinking the relevance of a foot soldier and its war strategy due to change in nuances of modern warfare and a Task Force on Defence Modernisation and Self Reliance has suggested defence services to focus more on research.

It is learnt from a reliable source that the task force has recommended that defence services need to have a different mix apart from infantry and armoured corps and should be research oriented.

Surprisingly, the relevance of a present day foot soldier is also being questioned as technological advances have changed the nuances of warfare from brawn to brain and the report has suggested ways to make him relevant.

“As the armed forces have become more technically and technology oriented, the foot soldier with existing fighting skills won’t be that relevant. To make him still relevant, he should possesss skills of different kind,” the source said.

Interestingly, the task force was constituted by the National Security Council (NSC) to focus on the issues pertaining to defence modernization as well as self-reliance in the country.

The source said there is a need to have an ongoing assessment of technology coming into play as well as the capabilities while suggesting the need to have a system similar to that of United States on how to handle modernization of defence forces.

He also said the biggest challenge for India is self-reliance. “Of the total defence budget of Rs 100,000 crore, nearly two third are spent on equipment which are outsourced from abroad. Stressing the need for public private partnership, he said the government need to work out how we can leverage the financial capital to build our self-reliance without the government putting money.

India has the potential as it does possess the engineering skills and many of the world’s premier research and development organizations rely on Indians who are working in various capacities, he said.

He also rued the fact that the contribution from Indian universities on applied research is lacking and they been more or less transformed as nurseries of political recruitment than the scientific temper. “If one goes through any US university, one comes across Nobel laureates but in India we hardly have any,” the source rued.