Saturday, February 19, 2011

Cyber Threat To India


Gear up to fight cyber war

ASHOK B SHARMA

India is gearing up to face cyber threats to its national security. The Indian Defence Minister AK Antony has called upon the Armed Forces to be vigilant against emerging cyber threats.  Addressing the centenary celebrations of the Corps of Signals here on Thursday he called upon the Armed Forces to keep abreast of latest technologies.  Terming the Corps of Signals as the “21st Century Arm of Our Forces”, Antony said it has a major role in promoting inter-service synergy and joint operations.

“The Corps is at the forefront of transforming the Indian Army to a network-centric force.  It must continuously enhance its ability to absorb latest technologies in collaboration with the Industry and R&D establishment. The Corps has done commendable work, be it in fielding futuristic strategic defence communication networks, or development of state-of-the-art tactical communication systems.” 

Speaking on the occasion the Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju said that besides being vital to the Armed Forces, telecommunication and cyber infrastructure is a national and strategic asset as various other key sectors such as the Railways, Airlines, Banks and Industry depend on it. He said that ICT will be a key factor in reshaping the methodology of war fighting in the future.  

“Any serious disruption can jeopardize our functioning including our responses to the war being raised by our adversaries. The ramification of cyber attacks launched by an unknown adversary or individual has necessitated a relook at the planning and security of Command and Control infrastructure at the highest levels of national governance,” Raju said.

 Underlining that the modern warfare has undergone a paradigm shift, the Chief of Army Staff General VK Singh said that the Corps of Signals has emerged as the proverbial “nervous system” of the Armed Forces in contemporary times.  

“In all future wars, information superiority will be one of the key battle winning factors and future battlefield milieu would require communication system that are secure, responsive and reliable,”  said General Singh. 

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Egyptians' fight for democracy

Why it happened in Egypt so unexpectedly?


By Vinod Varshney

People’s uprising in Egypt is going to end the 30-year long autocratic rule of President Hosni Mubarak. But it is not just as simple as that. It will have widespread implications not only for other Arab and Muslim countries, but many others including India.


The unexpectedness of the political upheaval on Arab streets took most countries’ foreign offices by surprise. Many are wondering how nobody could foresee the avalanche in Egypt. How come no intelligence agency could suggest that it was coming? No diplomatic pundits could forecast.


Many questions are now being asked how and why it happened so suddenly. But who had anticipated that the USSR would crumble the way it did in 1991?


Is there any invisible force behind?
Many do not believe that such an organized movement can be spontaneous. There should be some invisible force behind. But they are not able to figure out whose handiwork it could be.


Could it be Russia or China if not the US? Or is it Iran? Or is it Hamas of Palestine? Or is this just an expression of anger against Egypt’s weak policies towards Israel? Or is this a new Muslim phenomenon when people of Muslim countries have started coming out on streets for getting a democratic system of governance?


It is natural expression of desire for change
Majority of people I have spoken to believe that it is the natural expression of long suppressed Egyptians. It would be illustrative to know the kind of regime people of Egypt were living in.


Egypt is a country of 80 million who are controlled by 2 million police force, 1 million intelligence corps, 0.5 million strong army and another 0.5 million reserve army. In 25 out of 29 states the governors are either from police or military. Military people are running flourishing businesses and have enough control on the economy.


Left ideologues would have liked to paint Egyptian people’s uprising as an expression of anti-Americanism because the Mubarak regime had continually been supported by the US aid. But surprisingly there were no anti-US or anti-Military slogans.

Massive unemployement is one of the main causes
Most reliable explanation seems that it is the cumulative effect of so many things and the most important of them is the unemployment of hundreds of thousands of young Egyptians. Approximately 3 million people lost their jobs due to global turmoil in the financial service sector. The unemployment rate is staggeringly high around 34% among educated Egyptians?


Egypt has fifty percent population of young people who are under twenties. In such a situation it is not surprising that people got organised propelled by quick and free communication provided by internet. Much inspiration came from the uprising of Tunisia, which threw out the dictator, which was well shown by Al Jazeera TV.