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Pre-meet for National Seminar on Technology Sovereignty 2013

Actions Arising out of the Pre-meet for National Seminar on Technology Sovereignty 2013

22 July 2013, Committee Room, DMS Building, IIT Delhi

Participants:

The pre-meeting was attended by representatives from Ministry of Defence, Armed Forces, think-tanks, industry and academia. The list of participants is given as ANNEXURE I.

Purpose:

The purpose of the meeting was to deliberate how the major issues of concern pertaining to technology sovereignty of the nation, raised during the national seminar on ‘Technology Sovereignty 2012’ (TS 2012) could be taken to the next level through ‘Technology Sovereignty 2013’ (TS 2013). The suggestions from the government and the industry would then be used to structure the agenda for the ‘National Seminar on Technology Sovereignty 2013’ scheduled for 24th October 2013, at New Delhi. The agenda for Technology Sovereignty 2012 is attached for reference as ANNEXURE II.

Background - Linking TS 2012 and TS 2013

Prof. Kanika Bahl, HoD, Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi gave the welcome address, andsaid the Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi was proud to be part of the Pre-Meet and was confident that the industry, the government, and the academia will be able to align their interests on technological sovereignty, and create a strong agenda for the National Seminar on Technological Sovereignty 2013.

The welcome address was followed up with a review of the Valedictory Session at the 2012 National Seminar of Technology Sovereignty. (Attached as ANNEXURE III). Dr. Jaijit Bhattacharya, President, C- DEP highlighted that because of arising concerns to national security, India’s Defence sector should not

depend on imported technology. However, keeping ground realities in mind, where India cannot overnight start manufacturing 100% of the required technology, Dr. Bhattacharya suggested that the focus of the upcoming seminar should be narrowed down to concrete executables. He also suggested that as discussed at last year’s seminar, it is necessary to have an autonomous body that can act as an interface between the government, the academia, and the industry. Dr. Bhattacharya further explained that the future of modern warfare would be non-military conflicts, citing the cyber-bombing of Tehran as an example. The fundamental nature of warfare was changing to one in which civilians were getting affected directly. All participants agreed unanimously with Dr. Bhattacharya’s views.

Jaijit Bhattacharya, President, C-DEP, Major Gen. Dhruv C. Katoch, Director, CLAWS, and Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director General, Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis at the Pre-Meet onfor National Seminar on Technology Sovereignty 2013
Pre-Meet on for National Seminar on Technology Sovereignty 2013 held at Department of Management Studies, IIT, Delhi
Participants at the Pre-Meet on for National Seminar on Technology Sovereignty 2013
Prticipants at the Pre-Meet on for National Seminar on Technology Sovereignty 2013
Dr. Jaijit Bhattacharya, President, C-DEP, Prof. (Dr.) Kanika T. Bahl, HoD, Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi, Major Gen. Dhruv C. Katoch, Director, CLAWS, and Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director General, Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis at the Pre-Meet on for National Seminar on Technology Sovereignty 2013
Captain (IN) A Anand, Deputy Director General (IT&IW), WESEE, Ministry of Defence (Center) atPre-Meet on for National Seminar on Technology Sovereignty 2013

Summary of Suggestions from Government for structuring ‘TS -2013’

  1. India cannot manufacture everything, but it needs to establish leadership in certain areas so it is not vulnerable or dependent to relations with other countries for its critical needs.
  2. With reference to the procurement process of the Armed Forces, one of the most pressing concerns is the L1 procurement model with a suggestion to make a paradigm shift to T1 and T2 models.
  3. TS-2013 should explore on creating an autonomous body comprising stakeholders from industry, defence, academia, and think-tanks. Ex-servicemen should be integrated into this body to draw on their experience. The role of serving servicemen can also be further integrated by making provisions for them to take a few years to work in the industry, so that when they return to service they are able to bring the industry perspective into the army, and act as a link between the two.
  4. India at present is an assembler in ICT solutions, and to build manufacturing capabilities it needs to move up this ladder. TS-2013 should focus on the possible roadmap for this transition.
  5. TS 2013 should address the issue of procurement contract period, which should be increased (moving closer to the American model) from 1-2 years to 10-15 years.
  6. Barriers to entry to the small firms must be removed as their time to market is shorter.
  7. It is important to build awareness of new technologies and ideas that are under development with more case studies on innovative procurement processes.
  8. Defense needs to tell the industry about its long-range needs to existing and potential suppliers. Industry also needs to handhold the government, as there are instances of when the industry has withdrawn in middle of an on- going contract.

Summary of Suggestions from Industry for Structuring ‘TS-20

  1. The time to RFD process is very long, which leads technologies to get outdated. The cost of supporting an outdated technology is always higher. It was agreed by all present that it is necessary to compile case studies from the industry to support this.
  2. SMEs often spend years building technologies but the project has no timelines, resulting in developed technologies to die down. Mechanisms for government funding to protect SMEs need to be developed.
  3. If the government wants indigenous industry, then there need to be more examples of handholding, and protection by the government. Obsolescence is a major challenge to the industry.
  4. T1 has to take precedence over L1. The eligibility criteria of those industry players who can bid is rigid, and needs to change and become conducive to SME participation.
  5. Every two years the DPP is revised, which created inevitable challenges. DPP needs to be sorted out.
  6. Proposal for a session on trusted chip creation for the military in TS-2013. The pre-meet participants unanimously agreed that this concept needs to be developed with more details prior to the TS-2013, and agreed that a workshop led by Ashwini Agarwal of Applied Materials will be held before 25th August, 2013. Subsequently, based on the proceedings of this workshop, stakeholders would decide the relevance of inclusion of this session at TS-2013. Ashwini Agarwal agreed to this suggestion.
  7. Proposal to address procurement reforms within the defense and to make them more transparent. For instance, equipment are rejected just because the packaging is Chinese, creating hurdles for the industry.
  8. Proposal to explore the mechanism for provision for joint knowledge sharing between the defense and industry. This was accepted unanimously.
  9. Discussion on cyber-snooping and the rules governing lobbying and advocacy by the government.

  10. Leveraging Cloud technology for Defence was suggested as a possible topic for TS-2013.

Specific Action Points with Timelines agreed during the Pre-meet for TS-2013

  1. A workshop on trusted chip creation for the Army would be led by Mr. Ashwini Agarwal of Applied Materials before 25th August, 2013. Subsequently, based on the proceedings of this workshop, stakeholders would decide the relevance of inclusion of this session at TS-2013.
  2. A background note on how procurement of obsolescent technology by the Army is a major challenge to the industry would be prepared by Mr. Naresh Ajani and Ms. Anuradha Gupta of VNL. This would be sent by VNL to C-DEP by 25th August and would be shared with all stakeholders before 1st September 2013.

Proposed Topics for National Seminar on Technology Sovereignty 2013

Summing up the thoughts and ideas presented during the Pre-Meet, Dr. Jaijit Bhattacharya, President, C- DEP proposed that the following issues need to be highlighted the National Seminar on Technological Sovereignty 2013:

  1. The procurement Process Model
  2. Technologies that fundamental and horizontal across the military and should be developed. 
  3. Development of Collaborative institutional framework:
    1. Knowledge-sharing
    2. R&D
    3. Government funding
    4. Instituting a body to act as an interface between different stakeholders.

ANNEXURE

Participants at the Pre-meet for Technology Sovereignty 2013

  1. Prof. (Dr.) Kanika T. Bahl, HoD, Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi
  2. Dr. Jaijit Bhattacharya, President, Centre for Digital Economy Policy Research
  3. Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director General, Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis
  4. Major Gen. Dhruv C. Katoch, Director, CLAWS
  5. Captain (IN) A Anand, Deputy Director General (IT&IW), WESEE, Ministry of Defence
  6. Mr. Ranjeet Koul, Head- Defence Business, Intel South Asia
  7. Siddharth Shankar, Head-Defence and Home Affairs, Infosys
  8. Mr. Rajiv Mahajan, Senior Vice-President, Tejas Networks
  9. Mr. Naresh Ajwani, Managing Director, VNL
  10. Ms. Anuradha Gupta, Vice-President, Defence and Special Projects, VNL
  11. Commander Karan Singh, Head, Defence Vertical, HCL
  12. Col. Ashok Kumar Kochhar, Business Development Manager, Defence, Agilent Technology
  13. Mr. Ranjeet Goswani, Head – Business Development, Defence, TCS
  14. Ms. Anubhuti Kaul Bhrany, Head – Government Affairs, Wipro Ltd.
  15. R K Anand, Hewlett-Packard India
  16. Mr. Arijit Sen, Chair, Procurement Cell, C-DEP
  17. Mr. R Srivathsa Ramanathan, Advisor, Realtime Techsolutions Pvt Ltd.
  18. Ms. Ritu Ghosh, Chair, Environment Cell, C-DEP
  19. Ms. Kamayani Singh, Outreach and Advocacy, C-DEP
  20. Mr. Ashwini Agarwal, Director, Corporate Affairs, Applied Material
  21. Mr. Parminder Singh, Chair, IPR Cell, C-DEP
  22. Mr. Rishi Chawla, Director, Government Affairs, IBM India
  23. Mr. Aman Kwatra, Research Scholar, IIT Delhi
  24. Mr. Somnath Mitra, IBM
  25. Mr. Cherian Samuel, Associate Fellow, IDSA