[New Delhi, 30 March 2009] The Indian Armed Forces need an IT force, capable of executing effect based operations, said Lt General P Mohapatra, AVSM, Signal Officer-In-Chief & Senior Colonel Commandant, Integrated HQ of MoD (Army). He further added, whilst technology is a catalyst in undertaking effective operations, the armed forces has serious concern about security. The Industry, therefore, must come up with secure defence integrated technology.

He was speaking at 'DEFCOM INDIA 2009: Curtain Raiser', jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII); Integrated HQ of MoD (Army) and Corps of Signals. The event marked the release of brochure: DEFCOM INDIA 2009: Informatics for Defence Force Transformation &Technology Development in the Information Age. Eighth series of DEFCOM INDIA 2009 is scheduled in New Delhi on 27th and 28th May 2009.

Lt General P Mohapatra further outlined that technology interoperability and battlefield transparency should be maintained within three services of Armed Forces. Therefore a polity structure is underway to draft a comprehensive Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategy for the forces, besides streamlining knowledge management aspects of technology implementation and transparency.

Mr Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman, CII National Committee on Technology & CEO, HCL Infosystems Limited, in his address observed tremendous interest between industry and armed forces to work together. He stated that India offers a dynamic market for defence products and is positioned as a potential manufacturing hub for Indian as well as global defence products.

According to Mr Chowdhry, technology which was till late assumed as a supplementary domain in defence services has been mainstreamed today. Communication technology must be innovative and should come up with industry collaborations to achieve greater voice in defence services effectiveness. The network based collaboration must address crisis management, security features, scalability, user friendliness and sustainable technology for at least 15 years.

The session mooted that the biggest challenge for the Indian Armed forces is to transform to meet current and future challenges in the uncertain world of the 21st century. The armed forces should be transformed to a flexible, versatile, adoptable and agile setup in order to handle spectrum of future missions, crisis, enemies and wars.

PROGRAMME

1100 hrs	Registration
1130 hrs	Welcome Address	Mr Ajai Chowdhry Chairman, CII National Committee on Technology & Chairman & CEO HCL Infosystems Limited
1140 hrs	Address by Chief Guest	Lt General P Mohapatra Signal Officer in Chief Integrated HQ of MoD (Army)
11200 hrs	Release of Brochure: “DEFCOM INDIA 2009: Informatics for Defnece Force Transformation & Technology Development in The Information Age”
1205 hrs	Open House Discussion
1235 hrs	Vote of thanks	Mr Ajai Chowdhry Chairman, CII National Committee on Technology & Chairman & CEO HCL Infosystems Limited
1245 hrs	Networking Lunch

New Delhi
30 March 2009