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Subject: Internal Security

  • Vande Bharat and Samudra Setu Missions to repatriate Indian nationals

    India is all geared to operate flights and naval vessels to repatriate Indian nationals stranded abroad.

    The name Samudra Setu typically sound like a combatant naval exercise whereas Vande Bharat reminds us of Train-18. Both ideas have opposite context and meaning. One must keep this in mind.

    What is the ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ mission about?

    • ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ will see the operation of 64 flights from May 7 to May 13 to bring back around 15,000 Indian nationals stranded abroad.
    • Once completed, it may turn out to be the largest evacuation operation ever since the 1990 airlift of 1.7 lakh people from Kuwait.
    • Approximately, 2,000 people from abroad will fly back to India daily.

    What is Indian Navy’s ‘Operation Samudra Setu’?

    • The Indian Navy launched ‘Operation Samudra Setu’ (Sea Bridge) as a part of national effort to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas.
    • Indian Naval Ships Jalashwa and Magar are presently enroute to the port of Malè, Republic of Maldives to commence evacuation operations from 08 May 2020 as part of Phase-1.
    • INS Jalashwa is the largest amphibious platform in the Navy and is based at the Eastern Naval Command headquarters in Visakhapatnam.
    • It can normally accommodate 1,000 people but will take about 800.

  • ‘Trends in World Military Expenditure’ Report, 2019

    The annual report ‘Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2019’ was released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a Swedish think tank.

    Military expenditure across the World

    • The global military expenditure rose to $1917 billion in 2019 with India and China emerging among the top three spenders, according to the report.
    • In 2019, the top five largest spenders — U.S. ($732 bn), China, India, Russia ($65.1 bn) and Saudi Arabia ($61.9 bn) — accounted for 62% of the global expenditure.
    • China’s military expenditure reached $261 billion in 2019, a 5.1% increase compared with 2018, while India’s grew by 6.8% to $71.1 billion.
    • In Asia and Oceania, other than India and China, Japan ($47.6 bn) and South Korea ($43.9 bn) were the largest military spenders.

    What drives India’s military spending?

    • India’s tensions and rivalry with both Pakistan and China are among the major drivers for its increased military spending.
    • While India’s defence spending excluding pensions, which constitute a significant part, has been growing in absolute terms, it has been going down as a percentage of its GDP as noted by the report.

    Significant rise

    • India’s expenditure in 2019 was 6.8% more than that in 2018.
    • It grew by 259% over the 30-year period of 1990–2019, and by 37% over the decade of 2010–19.

    The Defence expenditure in India is increasing every year in absolute terms, implying higher spending while there has been very selective modernisation of the armed forces. Critically analyse.

  • Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2019

    A report compiled by NITI Aayog has questioned the methodology adopted by an Australian based institute to rank India as the seventh-worst terrorism affected country.

    Despite of being a global threat, there is yet no consensus on the definition of terrorism. Despite the considerable discussion, the formation of a comprehensive convention against international terrorism by the United Nations has always been impeded by the lack of consensus on a definition.

    Global Terrorism Index (GTI)

    • GTI is a report published annually by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP).
    • The index provides a comprehensive summary of the key global trends and patterns in terrorism since 2000.
    • It produces a composite score in order to provide an ordinal ranking of countries on the impact of terrorism.
    • It is an attempt to systematically rank the nations of the world according to terrorist activity.
    • The index combines a number of factors associated with terrorist attacks to build an explicit picture of the impact of terrorism, illustrating trends, and providing a data series for analysis by researchers and policymakers.

    Its database

    • The GTI is based on data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD).
    • The GTD is collected and collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland.
    • It has codified over 190,000 cases of terrorism.
    • The GTI covers 163 countries, covering 99.7% of the world’s population.

    India’s ranking

    • India has moved to the seventh position from the previous years eighth in the annual Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2019.
    • India has ranked ahead of conflict-ridden countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Palestine and Lebanon.

    Why such ranking matters?

    • The positioning in the global indices impacted investments and other opportunities.
    • The purpose was to see which of the indices can be used to drive reforms or which of these would require some amount of engagement with the publishing agency to make the indices more relevant.

    Issues with GTI

    • The GTD was based solely on “unclassified media articles, with more than 100 structured variables such as each attack’s location, tactics and weapons, perpetrators, casualties and consequences etc.
    • The large diversity in definitions of terrorism amongst countries, and the lack of a universally accepted definition of terrorism, leads to a great deal of ambiguity in calculating and understanding GTI reports.
    • IEP’s economic impact of terrorism model does not account for costs for countering violent extremism and long-term economic impacts on business activity, production and investment.
    • Indeed, the GTI 2019 report itself states that a great majority of property damage values from terrorist incidents are coded in the GTD as ‘unknown,’ resulting in 1 out 4 parameters scoring nil for most countries.
    • Similarly, the definition of mass shootings used in the GTI is limited to ‘indiscriminate rampages in public places resulting in four or more victims killed by the attacker,’ leaving out lone-wolf attacks.

    Highly irrelevant data

    • The absence of a robust data collection and analysis methodology, and any engagement with Governments facing the scourge of terrorism, means that the GTI has low direct value for policymakers.
    • It cannot be used as an aid to understand and alleviate challenges to countries from domestic and cross border terrorism.

  • What are Deep Fakes?

    Cybercrime officials in India have been tracking certain apps and websites that produce vulgar photographs of innocent persons using Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms. These images are then used to blackmail victims, seek revenge or commit fraud on social networking and dating sites.

    The most notorious misuse of AI is knocking the door. The Deepfake is an application of Deep Learning (an axiom of AI and Machine Learning). UPSC may ask a mains question about the challenges posed by AI-based technology.

    What is Deep Fake?

    • Cybercriminals use AI software — now easily available on apps and websites — to superimpose a digital composite (assembling multiple media files to make a final one) on to an existing video, photo or audio.
    • They are computer-generated images and videos.
    • Using AI algorithms a person’s words, head movements and expressions are transferred onto another person in a seamless fashion.
    • That makes it difficult to tell that it is a deepfake unless one closely observes the media file.

    Threats posed

    • Because of how realistic deepfake images, audio and videos can be, the technology is vulnerable for use by cybercriminals who could spread misinformation to intimidate or blackmail people.
    • With real-time face tracking it is becoming easier to fabricate believable videos of people doing and saying things they never did.
    • There are rising cases of “revenge porn” i.e. creation of sexually explicit videos or images that are posted on the Internet without the consent of the subject as a way to harass them.

    What are the catfish accounts?

    • Catfishing refers to the practice of setting up fictitious online profiles most often for the purpose of luring another into a fraudulent romantic relationship.
    • A “catfish” account is set up a fake social media profile with the goal of duping that person into falling for the false persona.

    What can we do to protect yourself?

    • A basic check of their social media profiles, comments on the images and whether similar profiles exist could help determine if the person is genuine.
    • While it is not easy to keep track of who downloads or misuses the user images, the best way to protect is to ensure that we are using privacy settings on social media profiles.
    • If one feels his/her image has been used without prior permission, they could use freely available reverse image search tools to find images that are similar to yours.
    • One can also be mindful of who he/she is conversing with on the web.

  • Exercise Pitch Black 2020

    Australia has informed India that their premier multilateral air combat training exercise Pitch Black 2020 scheduled in July has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 situation.

    All-time generic question seeking ‘match the pairs’ can be asked from the news as such.  Click here for more exercises.

     Ex Pitch Black 2020

    • Exercise Pitch Black is a biennial warfare exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
    • The aim of the exercise is to practice Offensive Counter Air (OCA) and Defensive Counter Air (DCA) combat, in a simulated war environment.
    • In the last edition of Pitch Black in 2018, the IAF for the first time participated with its Su-30MKI fighters, one C-130 and one C-17 transport aircraft.
    • It provided a unique opportunity for an exchange of knowledge and experience with these nations in a dynamic warfare environment.
    • The next edition of Pitch Black is scheduled in 2022.

    India’s defence relation with Australia

    • The defence and strategic engagement with Australia have steadily gone up in recent years especially on the bilateral front with naval cooperation at the forefront.
    • The bilateral naval exercise AUSINDEX early last year saw the participation of the largest Australian contingent ever to India with over 1,000 personnel.
    • The Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) has been long pending and is expected to be concluded soon as well as a broader maritime cooperation agreement including the Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) to elevate the existing strategic partnership.
    • Australia recently made a pitch for trilateral cooperation among India, Australia and Indonesia to identify new ways that our three countries can collaborate to be the best possible custodians of the Indian Ocean.

  • What are MK 54 torpedoes, AGM-84L Harpoon missiles that US has cleared for sale to India?

    The US has approved a military sale to India of 16 MK 54 all round up lightweight torpedoes and ten AGM-84L Harpoon Block II air-launched missiles. India plans to use the equipment requested in both the deals on the Indian Navy’s Boeing P-8I maritime aircraft.

    What is “Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)” , sometimes seen in the news? (CSP 2018) .

    MK 54 lightweight torpedo

    • The MK 54 lightweight torpedo is known as the Lightweight Hybrid Torpedo (LHT).
    • It weighs around 608 pounds, while its warhead weighs around 96.8 pounds and is highly explosive.
    • The primary use of this equipment is for offensive purposes when deployed by anti-submarine warfare aircraft and helicopters, and for defensive purposes when deployed by ships and against fast, deep-diving nuclear submarines and slow-moving, quiet, diesel-electric submarines.

    AGM-84L Harpoon Block II air-launched missiles

    • The Harpoon missile system will be integrated into the P-8I aircraft to conduct anti-surface warfare missions in defence of critical sea lanes.
    • It uses GPS-aided inertial navigation to hit the designated target.
    • Its warhead weighs over 500 pounds and is capable of delivering lethal firepower against targets, including land-based targets, coastal defence sites, surface-to-air missile sites, exposed aircraft and industrial or port facilities.

    About P-8I aircraft

    • Boeing’s P-8s are designed for long-range anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
    • The P-8s India version is called the P-8I, and helps the Indian Navy carry out important maritime operations.
    • According to Boeing, the aircraft can surpass 25,000 flight hours, and gives the Navy a significant edge in the strategically important Indian Ocean.
    • India currently has eight of these aircraft and is scheduled to receive four more by 2022.

  • How IS regroups and its threat to India

     

    IS has shown its ability to strike by regrouping and co-opting local affiliates be it the case of Ester Sunday attack in Sri Lanka or a recent attack on a  Gurudwara in Afghanistan. For India, the presence of sleeper cells and their links with the Islamic jihad group has internal security implications. We have covered an op-ed dealing with the Gurudwara attack and discussed the futility of the US-Taliban peace deal.

    Security threat of IS to India and South Asia

    • In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, there was speculation about the degree to which al-Qaeda had been able to make inroads in India.
    • In recent years, the focus has shifted to the IS.
    • The creation of an IS-Khorasan (IS-K) in early 2015 with a visible presence in Afghanistan-Pakistan, seemed to suggest that the group is now targeting South Asia.
    • The recent terror attack on a gurdwara in Kabul (March 25) was also claimed by the IS. The IS released a photograph of one of a resident of Kasargod in Kerala
    • According to India’s leading terrorism think-tank SATP (South Asia Terrorism Portal), 99 persons from India were confirmed to have joined the IS in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

    Question about the ” Over-ground worker” of the terrorist organisation was asked by the UPSC in 2019.

    Close intelligence cooperation within and beyond South Asia

    • Last October, the NIA disclosed that it had arrested 127 IS sympathisers from across India since 2014, and the highest number of 33 were from Tamil Nadu.
    • The arrests by NIA were made throughout the country and not from a specific region.
    • This degree of spread is testimony to the close watch the Indian security agencies are maintaining concerning the IS.
    • One may conjecture that close intelligence cooperation has been established within and beyond South Asia.
    • The pattern that now obtains is that countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan have their own internal surveillance in place to monitor the activities of the IS-K.

    Ability of IS to regroup and ally with a domestic affiliate

    • The IS has demonstrated a proclivity to re-group by co-opting or merging with credible domestic affiliates, even if they are little-known.
    • In Afghanistan, the IS-K has sought to position itself favourably in the factional tussle, and the Kabul gurdwara attack is seen as part of this murderous strategy.
    • Pakistan connection: Islamic terror groups in the Af-Pak region are deemed to be as credible as the support that they receive from the deep-state in Pakistan.
    • It is pertinent that the main accused in the Kabul gurdwara attack is Aslam Faroqi, a Pakistani national.

    Conclusion

    The ability of IS to co-opt a local affiliate makes it a credible threat for India where there is a significant presence of the sleeper cells. In the light of that threat India and the other affected nations will have to strive individually and collectively to foil such nefarious designs.

  • Still no bullseye, in volume and value

    Context

    Based on the latest estimates released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in the period between 2009-13 and 2014-18, Indian defence imports fell even as exports increased.

    What are the factors responsible for the shift?

    • Make in India initiative: The first is the ‘Make in India’ initiative, as part of which a number of components from Indian private and public sector enterprises have been prioritised by the government.
    • Delay by vendors in supplying equipment: The second set of factors is extraneous to India in the form of delays in supplying equipment by vendors and the outright cancellation of contracts by the Indian government or at least a diminution of existing contracts.

    How ‘Make in India’ made the difference?

    • DPP’s measures to build India’s defence industry: Under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) lays out the terms, regulations and requirements for defence acquisitions as well as the measures necessary for building India’s defence industry.
    • It created a new procurement category in the revised DPP of 2016 dubbed ‘Buy Indian Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured’ (IDDM).
    • Earmarking projects for MSMEs: The ‘Make’ procedure has undergone simplification “earmarking projects not exceeding ten crores” that are government-funded and ₹3 crores for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that are industry-funded.
    • Technology transfer to private companies: In addition, the government has also introduced provisions in the DPP that make private industry production agencies and partners for technology transfers.
    • The growing share of SMEs in the defence market: Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) until 2016 accounted for a 17.5% share of the Indian defence market.
    • According to the government of India data for the financial year 2018-19, the three armed services for their combined capital and revenue expenditures sourced 54% of their defence equipment from Indian industry.
    • Four companies among the top 100: Among arms producers, India has four companies among the top 100 biggest arms producers of the world.
    • It is estimated, according to SIPRI, their combined sales were $7.5 billion in 2017, representing a 6.1% jump from 2016.
    • All four of these companies are public sector enterprises and account for the bulk of the domestic armament demand.
    • The largest Indian arms producers are the Indian ordnance factories and the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which are placed 37th and 38th, respectively, followed by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL).

    Reasons for falling imports

    • Cancellation of contracts: Indian defence acquisitions have also fallen due to the cancellation of big-ticket items. For instance the India-Russia joint venture for the development of the advanced Su-57 stealth Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA).
    • India cancelled involvement in 2018 due to rising dissatisfaction in delays with the project as well as the absence of capabilities that would befit a fifth-generation fighter jet.
    • Reduction in order: In 2015, the Modi government also reduced the size of the original acquisition of 126 Rafale Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) from Dassault to 36 aircraft, which is also responsible for significantly driving down the import bill.
    • Delay by suppliers: That apart, the delays in the supplies of T-90 battle tanks, and Su-30 combat aircraft from Russia and submarines from France, in 2009-13 and 2014-18, also depressed imports.
    • Industrial model at odds with the global trend: India’s defence model faces challenges despite the positive trends generated by ‘Make in India’.
    • SMEs still face stunted growth because India’s defence industrial model is at odds with global trends in that it tends to create disincentives for the private sector.
    • Governments, including the incumbent, have tended to privilege Defence Public Sector Units (DPSUs) over the private sector, despite ‘Make in India’.
    • Undermining the private sector: This model is highly skewed, undermining the growth of private players and diminishes the strength of research and development.

    The rise in Indian defence export

    • Considerable rise between 2012 and 2019: The period between 2012 and 2019 saw Indian defence exports experiencing a considerable jump sourced from Indian public and private sector enterprises.
    • In the last two fiscal years, 2017-18 and 2018-19, exports have witnessed a surge from ₹7,500 crore to ₹11,000 crores, representing a 40% increase in exports.
    • Measures introduced by the government: The sharpest rise in defence export products can be attributed to the measures introduced by the government which in 2014, delisted or removed several products that were restricted from exports.
    • It dispensed with the erstwhile No Objection Certificate (NOC) under the DPP restricting exports of aerospace products, several dual-use items and did away with two-thirds of all products under these heads.
    • According to the Ministry of Commerce and the Industry, Export-Import Data Bank export of defence items in the aerospace category has witnessed an increase in value.
    • Small naval crafts account for the bulk of India’s major defence exports. However, the export of ammunition and arms remain low.
    • As a percentage of total Indian trade, defence-related exports for the fiscal years 2017-18 and 2018-19 were 8 and 0.73%, respectively.

    Conclusion

    From a volume and value standpoint, Indian defence exports, while showing a promising upward trend, still remain uncompetitive globally. It is likely that Indian defence exports will take several years before they are considered attractive by external buyers. But green shoots are emerging in a sector that has long been devoid of any dynamism and Indian policymakers should make the most of the opportunities this represents.

  • [pib] Defence Procurement Procedure, 2020

    Raksha Mantri unveiled the draft Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2020 that aims at further increasing indigenous manufacturing and reducing timelines for procurement of defence equipment.

    Defence Procurement Procedure

    • The draft of DPP 2020 has been prepared by a Review Committee headed by Director General (Acquisition) based on the recommendations of all stakeholders, including private industry.
    • The first DPP was promulgated in 2002 and has since been revised a number of times to provide impetus to the growing domestic industry and achieve enhanced self-reliance in defence manufacturing.

    Features:

    • The government is constantly striving to formulate policies to empower the private industry including MSMEs in order to develop the eco-system for indigenous defence production.
    • The major changes proposed in the new DPP are:

     1) Indigenous Content ratio hiked

    • The draft proposes increasing the Indigenous Content (IC) stipulated in various categories of procurement by about 10% to support the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
    • A simple and realistic methodology has been incorporated for verification of indigenous content for the first time.

    2) New Category: “Buy Global” Manufacture in India

    • It has been introduced with minimum 50% indigenous content on cost basis of total contract value.
    • Only the minimum necessary will be bought from abroad while the balance quantities will be manufactured in India.
    • This would be in preference to the ‘Buy Global’ category as manufacturing will happen in India and jobs will be created in the country.

    3) Leasing introduced as a new category

    • Leasing has been introduced as a new category for acquisition in addition to existing ‘Buy’ & ‘Make’ categories to substitute huge initial capital outlays with periodical rental payments.
    • Leasing is permitted under two categories e, Lease (Indian) where Lessor is an Indian entity and is the owner of the assets and Lease (Global) where Lessor is a Global entity.
    • This will be useful for military equipment not used in actual warfare like transport fleets, trainers, simulators, etc.

    4) Product support

    • The scope and options for Product Support have been widened to include contemporary concepts in vogue, namely Performance Based Logistics (PBL), Life Cycle Support Contract (LCSC), Comprehensive Maintenance Contract (CMC), etc to optimize life cycle support for equipment.
    • The capital acquisition contract would normally also include support for five years beyond the warranty period.

  • ‘MH-60R and AH-64E Apache’ Choppers

     

    During his speech in Ahmedabad, Mr. Trump announced: deals to sell over $3 billion state-of-the-art military helicopters and other equipment to the Indian Armed Forces.

    MH-60 Romeo helicopters

    • The incoming 24 multirole MH-60 Romeo helicopters are expected to boost the Indian Navy’s efforts to expand its role in the Indian Ocean Region.
    • The MH-60 Romeo Seahawk, made by defence giant Lockheed Martin, is one of the most advanced naval helicopters in the world, used by the US Navy among others.
    • It is the most capable and mature Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW) multi-mission helicopter available in the world today, the makers say.
    • MH-60 Romeo Seahawks have equipped with anti-submarine Mark 54 torpedoes and Hellfire air-to-surface missiles, along with precision-kill rockets.
    • It also has an advanced system for passive detection, location, and identification of emitters. It can not only track and hunt ships but is also used by the US Navy as an anti-submarine weapon.

    Apache helicopters

    • Indian Army will receive six more Apache helicopters in addition to the 22.
    • The Apaches can operate at high altitudes and will be deployed along the Pakistan border. The Army is likely to get the helicopters armed with Stinger air-to-air missiles and Hellfire Longbow air-to-ground missiles.
    • Among the Apache’s modern capabilities are the ability to shoot fire-and-forget anti-tank missiles, air-to-air missiles, rockets, and other munitions.
    • It also has modern electronic warfare capabilities to provide versatility in network-centric aerial warfare.
    • The choppers are all-weather capable and have high agility and survivability against battle damage.
    • They can be easily maintained in field conditions as well as during operations in the tropical and desert regions.