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Subject: Internal Security

  • Proposal for Integrated Theatre Commands

    The Chief of Defence Staff has held a meeting with the Vice Chiefs of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, and others in the backdrop of concerns about the proposed model of the integrated theatre commands.

    What are integrated theatre commands?

    • In the simplest words, it is a unified command under which all the resources of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force are pooled, depending on the threat perception.
    • The commands could be geographical — like looking at a border with a particular country — or thematic, like a command for all maritime threats.
    • Several nations in the world have theatre commands, including the United States and China.

    Is theatre commands a new idea?

    • The idea of creating an integrated tri-Services command in India is not new — it had been recommended at various levels after the Kargil conflict.
    • When Gen Rawat was appointed Chief of Defence Staff in January 2020 with a mandate to raise such commands within his three-year tenure, the idea was finally brought to the design table.
    • After his appointment, Gen Rawat had commissioned studies within each of the armed forces to come up with ideas of what these commands could look like.
    • These were headed by the Vice Chiefs of the forces.
    • Last year, Gen Rawat had suggested that the first of these commands, the Air Defence Command, could come up by the end of 2020.
    • However, the process has been delayed due to multiple factors, including the Covid-19 pandemic.
    • Officials are now suggesting that some of the new commands could be rolled out by the end of this year.

    What is the proposal under discussion?

    • A model with four to five integrated tri-Services theatre commands is under discussion, with each command headed by a three-star officer.
    • This officer, the theatre commander, will report to the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC), which, as the name suggests, includes the three Service Chiefs, and is headed by the CDS as its permanent chairman.
    • This brings in a major change — the Service chiefs currently have all the operational control over their forces; operational powers will now move to the COSC.
    • Each of these commands will have the needed assets from all the three forces. Operational control over all of those assets, regardless of the force, will lie with the commander of that theatre.

    The proposed commands are:

    • A Maritime Theatre Command, which will take care of all the maritime security needs of the country on both the eastern and the western seaboards, and will include air strike assets and amphibian forces of the Army.
    • An Air Defence Command, which will be mandated with air defence across the country and beyond. The fighter jets will have reconnaissance and surveillance assets as well.
    • Two or three land-based commands are proposed. If there are two commands, there will be one each for India’s borders with China and Pakistan.
    • But there is also a proposal to have another command looking at India’s borders with Pakistan and China in Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
    • There will be a Logistics Command, which will have the logistics of all the Services under one person; and there will be a Training and Doctrine Command, so that all Services work under a common doctrine and have some basic common training.

    What will be the role of the Services, if not operational?

    • As of now, the Services have to speak to each other in times of need and urgency to request their assets to conduct a particular operation.
    • The proposal is to have a theatre commander who will have operational control of the assets under his command, thus enhancing jointness among the forces, and also reducing duplication of resources.
    • However, this would leave the Service chiefs with no direct control over their assets operationally.
    • This does not mean their roles will be made redundant. Now the Services will have the core tasks to Raise, Train and Sustain their respective forces.
    • Also, as each chief will be a member of the COSC and an expert of his/her domain, his or her inputs will be necessary for all operational decisions.

    Readiness of the services

    • Sources within the Services and the Defence Ministry have mentioned that while the Army and the Navy are on board with the proposal, the Air Force has certain reservations.
    • One, the Air Force does not want the Air Force chief to lose operational control of Air assets, according to the sources.
    • Two, the Air Force is concerned that all of its assets might be divided within these integrated theatres.
    • Sources in the Air Force said that all such concerns need to be addressed before such a significant transformation of the defence set-up takes place.

    How many commands are there now; are any of them tri-Service commands?

    As of now, the three forces have 17 commands between them.

    • The Army has seven commands: Northern, Eastern, Southern, Western, Central, Southwestern and Army Training Command (ARTRAC).
    • The Air Force has seven as well: Western, Eastern, Southern, Southwestern, Central, Training, and Maintenance commands.
    • The Navy has three: Western, Eastern and Southern, of which Southern is largely about training.
    • Even if these commands operate in the same region, they are not co-located, and their areas of operational responsibility are not necessarily the same.
    • There are two existing tri-Service commands as well — the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC), which is headed by rotation by officers from the three Services.

  • What is a Full Ship Shock Trial (FSST)?

    The US Navy Friday carried out a ‘full ship shock trial’ on its newest and most advanced nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to ensure its hardness was capable of withstanding battle conditions.

    What is a Full Ship Shock Trial (FSST)?

    • During World War II, American warships suffered severe damage from enemy mines and torpedoes that had actually missed their target, but exploded underwater in close proximity.
    • The US Navy has since worked to improve the shockproofing of their ship systems to minimize damage from such “near miss” explosions.
    • In FSSTs, an underwater explosive charge is set off near an operational ship, and system and component failures are documented.
    • The FSST probes whether the components survive shock in their environment on the ship; it probes the possibilities of system failures, and large components that could not be otherwise tested.

  • [pib] Exercise EUNAVFOR

    Indian Navy is participating in the maiden IN – EUNAVFOR Joint Naval Exercise in the Gulf of Aden.

    Exercise EUNAVFOR

    • EUNAVFOR is a multilateral naval exercise comprising of Italian Navy, Spanish Navy, and French Navy.
    • Ships of the four navies will endeavor to enhance and hone their war-fighting skills and their ability as an integrated force to promote, peace, security, and stability in the maritime domain.
    • EUNAVFOR and the Indian Navy converge on multiple issues including counter-piracy operations and protection of vessels deployed under the charter of the World Food Programme (UN WFP).
    • Indian Navy and EUNAVFOR also have regular interaction through SHADE (Shared Awareness and De-confliction) meetings held annually in Bahrain.
    • This engagement showcases increased levels of synergy, coordination, and inter-operability between India and EUNAVFOR.
    • It also underscores the shared values as partner navies, in ensuring freedom of seas and commitment to an open, inclusive and rules-based international order.

    Mark the nations along the Gulf of Aden:

  • Loss of Safe Harbour for Twitter

    Twitter has reportedly lost the coveted “safe harbour” immunity in India after failing to appoint statutory officers on time, as mandated by the new Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021.

    What is the news?

    • With this, the social media giant becomes the only American platform to have lost the protective shield – granted under Section 79 of the IT Act.
    • Its rival platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp remain protected.
    • The new development could mean that Twitter’s senior executives that include its India managing director, face legal actions under relevant IPC for ‘unlawful’ activities on the platform – even if conducted by users.

    Why such a move?

    • Earlier this week, Twitter said it appointed an interim Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), and the details of the officer were not yet shared with the government.
    • The company also posted job openings for a Nodal Officer and Resident Grievance Officer – the two key positions mandated by the central government’s IT Rules, 2021.

    What is safe harbour protection?

    • According to Section 79 of IT Act, 2000, “an intermediary shall not be liable for any third party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted by him,” therefore providing Safe Harbour protection.
    • To put it simply, the law notes that intermediaries such as Twitter or your Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are not liable to punishment if third parties (users) misuse the infrastructure, in this case, the platform.
    • However, the protection is guaranteed only when the intermediary does not ‘initiate the transmission,’ ‘select the receiver of the transmission,’ and ‘modify the information contained in the transmission.’
    • It means that as long as the platform acts just as the medium to carry out messages from users A to user B, that is, without interfering in any manner, it will be safe from any legal prosecution.

    Inception of the concept

    • In its original form, the IT Act 2000 provided little or no Safe Harbour protection to internet intermediaries as the definition of the intermediary was restricted.
    • However, things began changing in 2004, in a case where a student posted an obscene clip for sale.
    • The student and the CEO of that company were both held later for letting pornographic material circulate online.
    • The CEO challenged the proceedings against him, contending that he could not be personally held liable for the listing and that the MMS was transferred directly between the seller and buyer without the intervention of the website.
    • The executive was acquitted, the case eventually resulted in the addition of Section 79 in the IT Act to provide immunity to intermediaries.

    Why has Twitter lost the protection?

    • Over the years, social media platforms have evolved and often tend to act as gatekeepers.
    • For instance, Twitter banning Donald Trump and adding “manipulated media” label on select posts have been questioned by excerpts.
    • In other words, an intermediary’s ability to “modify the information contained in the transmission,” opens rooms for revision of the law, experts believe.
    • Hence, the government introduced the IT Rules 2021 in December last year and implemented it in May 2021.
    • As per the new order, all social media platforms with more than 50 lakh (five million) users will need to appoint a Chief Compliance Officer, a Nodal Contact Person, and a Resident Grievance Officer from India to smoothen the grievance mechanism for citizens.
    • The officers will need to acknowledge queries with 24 hours and resolve them in 15 days from the date of receipt.

    What can happen next?

    • Once a company loses the Safe Harbour protection, technically, officials are liable to punishment if a post even by a third user violates local laws.
    • The new IT Rules 2021 do not mention any ban for non-compliance.
    • But with an estimated 1.75 crore users in India, Twitter would likely fill key positions soon to comply with the new norms laid by the government.
    • As mentioned, the company already appointed an interim Chief Compliance Officer earlier.
    • This, according to the government, means that the protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, accorded to Twitter for being a social media intermediary, now stands withdrawn.

    How does this impact Twitter?

    • If someone puts out any content on Twitter that leads to some form of violence, or violates any Indian law with respect to content, not only the person that has put out the tweet will be held responsible.
    • Even Twitter will be legally liable for the content as it no longer has the protection.

    Is there something else that can happen subsequently?

    • In the longer run, there is also the theoretical possibility that Twitter might be subjected to the 26 per cent cap of direct foreign investment in media and publishing.
    • This in turn means that the platform may be forced to look for an Indian buyer for the remaining 74 per cent stake.

  • Synthetic biology and its implications for national security

    Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, the article discusses the national security threat emanating from biological weapons.

    Synthetic biology

    • Synthetic biology is a revolutionary technology that can help us manipulate biological organisms and processes for human betterment, especially in treating diseases, by re-engineering cells.
    •  In 2014, the U.S. Department of Defense categorised synthetic biology as one of the six ‘disruptive basic research areas’.
    • Unlike the nuclear domain, the fields of biology or synthetic biology are not regulated internationally despite growing military interest in it.

    Risks involved

    • There is the possibility of deliberate misuse of synthetic biology.
    • There is a need to carefully review, especially in the wake of the pandemic, the biosecurity systems in place where such technologies are in use.
    • Accidental leaks of experimental pathogens are another concern.
    • There has been very little focus on threats emanating from biological sources as compared to the focus on nuclear weapons.
    • This is despite the fact that a well-orchestrated biological attack could have serious implications.
    • This was before synthetic biology came into play.
    • A well-planned attack using highly infectious pathogens synthetically engineered in a lab could be disastrous.
    • It would be difficult to pin responsibility on a specific actor if the incubation period is high,

    BTWC: An inadequate mechanism for regulation

    • Despite being the weapon of mass destruction (WMD) safety and security attention given to bio-weapons is not at par with nuclear and chemical weapons.
    • There is an international convention and an implementing body for both nuclear and chemical weapons.
    • However, for bio-weapons, all we have is the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) of 1972 with no implementing body.
    • The BTWC does not have a verification clause, nor does it have clearly laid down rules and procedures to guide research in this field.
    • Article 1 of the BTWC bans bio-weapons but research for medical and bio-defence purposes are allowed.
    • While this is understandable, the problem is that there is a thin line between bio-defence research and bio-weapons research. 
    • An Ad Hoc Group set up in 1994 to negotiate a Protocol to enhance the transparency of treaty-relevant biological facilities and activities to help deter violations of the BTWC submitted a report at the Fifth BTWC Review Conference in 2001 but was not accepted by the member states.

    Concerns for India

    • India is at a uniquely disadvantaged position in this area given poor disease surveillance, insufficient coordination among various government departments dealing with biosecurity issues, and the pathetic state of the healthcare system.
    • India has multiple institutions dealing with biosafety and biosecurity threats but there is no coordination among them.
    • Given the rising risk of diseases of zoonotic origin, the traditional ministry-wise separation might not be useful.
    •  India, with its porous borders and ill-trained border control institutions, will remain vulnerable to pathogens or dangerous biological organisms.

    Way forward

    • Pandemics have also highlighted that the traditional distinction at the international institutional level between biological weapons (a field governed by the BTWC) and diseases (governed by BTWC) may not be useful anymore.
    • There needs to be more conversation between health specialists and bio-weapons/defence specialists.
    • The November 2021 BTWC review conference must take stock of the advances in the field, address the thinning line between biotechnology research and bio-weapons research, and consider international measures for monitoring and verification.

    Consider the question “How synthetic biology poses security challenges for India and the rest of the world? Suggest the measures to deal with this challenge.” 

    Conclusion

    Covid-19 should serve as a wake-up call to give BTWC more teeth in dealing with the bio-weapons with a suitable institutional mechanism.

  • What is Fastly Internet Outage?

    Several big websites around the world went down for about half an hour because of a major issue with the content delivery network (CDN) of American cloud computing services provider Fastly.

    Global internet outage: Which websites were affected?

    • com, Reddit, Twitch, Spotify, Pinterest, Stack Overflow, GitHub, gov.uk, Hulu, HBO Max, Quora, PayPal, Vimeo and Shopify are some of the big names.
    • Prominent news websites impacted were the Financial Times, the Guardian, the New York Times, CNN, and Verge, to name some.
    • Most users would have seen a 503 error when trying to access these websites, indicating that the browser was not able to access the server.

    What is Fastly?

    • Fastly is a cloud computing services provider, which offers CDN, edge computing, cloud storage services.
    • All of its geographies, including the three stations it has in India — Chennai, Mumbai and New Delhi — were suffering from “Degraded Performance”.

    Answer this PYQ from CSP 2018:

    Q.The terms ‘WannaCry, Petya, Eternal Blue’ sometimes mentioned news recently are related to

    (a) Exoplanets

    (b) Crypto currency

    (c) Cyber attacks

    (d) Mini satellites

    What is a CDN?

    • A CDN refers to a geographically distributed group of servers that work together to provide fast delivery of Internet content.
    • They house content close to the telecom service providers’ networks.
    • Majority of web traffic across the world today is routed through CDNs.
    • Platforms such as Netflix, Facebook, Amazon — ones with large quantities of data held in global libraries — host their geographically relevant content closer to where that content is to be consumed.
    • This ensures the end customer is able to access the content faster.
    • Another reason companies rely on these CDNs is to help protect their sites against traffic spikes, distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks, etc.

  • Explained: Social Media and Safe Harbour

    The new rules for social media platforms and digital news outlets called the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code has come into effect.

    New guidelines for digital media

    • The guidelines had asked all social media platforms to set up a grievances redressal and compliance mechanism.
    • This included appointing a resident grievance officer, chief compliance officer and a nodal contact person.
    • The IT Ministry had also asked these platforms to submit monthly reports on complaints received from users and action taken.
    • A third requirement was for instant messaging apps was to make provisions for tracking the first originator of a message.
    • Failure to comply with any one of these requirements would take away the indemnity provided to social media intermediaries under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.

    What is Section 79 of the IT Act?

    • Section 79 says any intermediary shall not be held legally or otherwise liable for any third party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted on its platform.
    • This protection, the Act says, shall be applicable if the said intermediary does not in any way, initiate the transmission of the message in question, select the receiver of the transmitted message and does not modify any information contained in the transmission.
    • This means that as long as a platform acts just as the messenger carrying a message from point A to point B, without interfering in any manner, it will be safe from any legal prosecution.
    • The intermediary must not tamper with any evidence of these messages or content present on its platform, failing which it loses its protection under the Act.

    Effect of non-compliance

    • As of now, nothing changes overnight. Social media intermediaries will continue to function as they were, without any hiccups.
    • People will also be able to post and share content on their pages without any disturbance.
    • Social media intermediaries such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have so far not appointed any officer or contact person as required under the new rules.
    • They have also failed to submit monthly action taken reports on grievances and complaints submitted to them by users. Thus, protection under Section 79 of the IT Act does will not hold for them.

    Liabilities with the new rules

    • Further, Rule 4(a) of the IT Rules mandates that significant social media intermediaries must appoint a chief compliance officer (CCO) who would be held liable in case the intermediary fails to observe the due diligence requirements.
    • This means that if a tweet, a Facebook post or a post on Instagram violates the local laws, the law enforcement agency would be well within its rights to book not only the person sharing the content but the executives of these companies as well.

    Global norms on safe harbour protection

    • As most of the bigger social media intermediaries have their headquarters in the US, the most keenly watched is Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.
    • This provides Internet companies a safe harbour from any content users post of these platforms.
    • Experts believe it is this provision in the US law that enabled companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google to become global conglomerates.
    • Like Section 79 of India’s IT Act, this Section 230 states that “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider”.
    • This effectively means that the intermediary shall only be like a bookstore owner who cannot be held accountable for the books in the store unless there is a connection.

    Repercussions of the rules in India

    • WhatsApp has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the new Rules which include a requirement for social media platforms to compulsorily enable “the identification of the first originator of the information” in India upon government or court order.
    • It argued that this provision forces it “to break end-to-end encryption on its messaging service, as well as the privacy principles underlying it.

    Must read:

    [Burning Issue] New IT Rules 2021

  • Israel’s Iron Dome rocket defence system

    Context

    • Amid the Israel-Palestine conflict, the night sky over Israel has been ablaze with interceptor missiles from Iron Dome shooting down the incoming rockets in the sky.

    What is Iron Dome?

    • Iron Dome is a multi-mission system capable of intercepting rockets, artillery, mortars and Precision Guided Munitions as well as aircraft, helicopters and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) over short ranges of up to 70 km.
    • It is an all-weather system and can engage multiple targets simultaneously and can be deployed over land and sea.
    • Iron Dome is jointly manufactured by Rafael Advanced Systems and has been in service with Israeli Air Force since 2011.
    • The radar system was developed by Elta.

    Working of Iron Dome

    • An Iron Dome battery consists of a battle management control unit, a detection and tracking radar and a firing unit of three vertical launchers, with 20 interceptor missiles each.
    • The interceptor missile uses a proximity fuse to detonate the target warhead in the air.
    • One of the system’s important advantages is its ability to identify the anticipated point of impact of the threatening rocket, to calculate whether it will fall in a built-up area or not, and to decide on this basis whether or not to engage it.
    • This prevents unnecessary interception of rockets that will fall in open areas and thus not cause damage, the paper states.
    • The system has intercepted thousands of rockets so far and, according to Rafael Advanced Systems, its success rate is over 90%.

    Limitations of the system

    • The system can see limitations when it is overwhelmed with a barrage of projectiles.
    • The system has a ‘saturation point’.
    • It is capable of engaging a certain number of targets at the same time, and no more.
    • One of the possible limitations is the system’s inability to cope with very short range threats as estimates put the Iron Dome’s minimum interception range at 5-7 kilometres.

     

  • [pib] DRDO conducts maiden trial of Python-5 Air to Air Missile

    Tejas adds Python-5 in its capacity

    • Tejas, India’s indigenous Light Combat Aircraft, added the 5th generation Python-5 Air-to-Air Missile (AAM) in its air-to-air weapons capability on April 27, 2021.
    • Trials were also aimed to validate enhanced capability of already integrated Derby Beyond Visual Range (BVR) AAM on Tejas.
    • The test firing at Goa completed a series of missile trials to validate its performance under extremely challenging scenarios.
    • The trials met all their planned objectives.
    • The missiles were fired from Tejas aircraft of Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) flown by Indian Air Force (IAF) Test pilots.
    • The successful conduct was made possible with years of hard work by the team of scientists, engineers and technicians from ADA and HAL-ARDC along with admirable support from CEMILAC, DG-AQA, IAF PMT, NPO (LCA Navy) and INS HANSA.

  • India third highest military spender in 2020: SIPRI

    What the SIPRI database says

    • India was the third largest military spender in the world in 2020, behind only the US and China.
    • The US accounted for 39 per cent of the money spent on military globally, China accounted for 13 per cent, and India accounted for 3.7 per cent of the globe’s share.
    • The US spent a total of $778 billion in 2020, China spent $252 billion and India’s military expenditure was $72.9 billion.
    • The United States’ military spending was 3.7 per cent of its GDP while the corresponding numbers for China and India were 1.7 per cent and 2.9 per cent respectively.
    • The other top spenders included Russia with $61.7 billion, the UK at $59.2 billion, Saudi Arabia at $57.5 billion, followed by Germany and France at just under $53 billion each.

    Increase in spending in the year of pandemic

    •  SIPRI said that the total “global military expenditure rose to $1981 billion last year, an increase of 2.6 per cent in real terms from 2019.
    • 2.6 per cent increase in world military spending came in a year” when the global GDP shrank by 4.4 per cent largely due to the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
    • Military spending as a share of GDP—the military burden—reached a global average of 2.4 per cent in 2020, which is the biggest year-on-year rise in the military burden since the global financial and economic crisis in 2009.