Naval Empowerment

THE LAUNCH OF three naval platforms on January 15 marks an important step in India’s naval modernisation and refurbishment. INS Surat, a guided-missile destroyer; INS Nilgiri, a guided missile frigate and INS Vagsheer, a Kalvari class submarine will give the Indian Navy a much needed punch. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said as much when he launched the three vessels at Naval Dockyards in Mumbai. He said the addition marked a “giant leap forward for Navy’s empowerment and self-reliance.”

INS Surat is the last of the four destroyers of the Visakhapatnam class of destroyers—the successor class to INS Kolkata class of de­stroyers—to be delivered. The interesting part of the story is that the latter class of ships were laid down from 2003 to 2006 and delivered between 2014 and 2016. The succes­sor ships to that class were laid down between 2013 and 2018 and delivered in the five years between 2021 and 2025. The speed of delivery of these major platforms has stepped up a bit. A similar story marks the delivery of frigates of the Nilgiri class frigates and its preceding class of frigates, the Shivalik class (Project P17A). In this case, the speed of deliv­ery was much faster.

The story of the conven­tional submarines of the INS Vagsheer class—an export variant of the French Scorpene submarines— marks a break from the previous acquisitions of con­ventional submarines (the Sindhughosh and Shishumar class submarines). The latter varieties were acquired in the 1980s and 1990s and after that the acquisition pipeline just stopped.

The speed of acquisition of these warships and the utter absence of reforms in weapons acquisition by the Indian armed forces tells its own story. While India pro­fesses the ambition to build a “blue water” navy, the painful reality is that except in the last one decade, there was no sign of moving ahead with that ambition. All this while the Chinese navy continued to expand rapidly. Today, the Chinese navy boasts of 370 ships while India “hopes” to mount a 175-ship force by 2035. By that year, the Chinese navy would have acquired 435 vessels, a lead of nearly 2.5 times in its favour.

Naysayers will say such comparisons are meaningless as China is competing against the US and not just India. They are wrong. For one, India is competing not just against China but also Pakistan and other hostile neighbours who now require naval attention. For another, the Indian navy has a much higher hill to climb while battling obsoles­cence. To give a few examples, India is yet to build a fleet of nuclear attack submarines or SSNs; China already has a fleet. India is still debating whether it can afford another aircraft carrier; China is build­ing them at a furious pace.

India’s problem is not just one of devoting resources for acquiring major weapons platforms. After all, the pace of acquisitions for the three armed forces has speeded up considerably in the last one decade even as expenditures of the government across the board—from welfare to eco­nomic investments—have gone up manifold when com­pared to the previous decade (from 2004 to 2014). The issue is also one of a conceptual gap between dreaming about a “blue water” navy and doing something to get there. The danger that India’s armed forces will get outdated, both in terms of platforms and in doctrinal terms, is very real. The government is doing its bit by providing resources; it is time armed forces pulled up their socks.

India lives in a very hostile neighbourhood. At one time, its southern flank required very little attention. With China entering the Indian Ocean in a big way, that “peace dividend” has ended. The new ships are a step in the right direction to restore some balance. More are needed and soon.

The Pannun Plot 

DAYS BEFORE DONALD TRUMP starts his second term as US president, a high-powered committee set up by the Government of India last year has recommended legal action against an individual in the alleged plot to kill Kha­listani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the US.

With this step, the government will ensure that India-US rela­tions will begin on a positive note with the new administration. A government release on January 15 said, “After a long enquiry, the Committee has submitted its report to the Government and recommended legal action against an individual, whose earlier criminal links and antecedents also came to notice during the enquiry. The Enquiry Committee has recommended that the legal action must be completed expeditiously.” The name of the individual was not released.

Last year, the US provided inputs to India on the alleged plot to kill Pannun. Just about the same time, Canada also alleged that Indian agents were behind the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an­other Khalistani, in Canada. There was suspicion that the inputs in that case were provided by the US to Canada. Canada has not provided any evidence to India in that case until now.

It is no secret that under the Biden administration bilateral relations between India and the US were hit hard. The constant needling of India on a variety of issues ranging from “democratic values” to India’s neutrality in the Ukraine War led to a chill be­tween the two countries that had witnessed a qualitative change in relations—for the better—in the 21st century.

What irked India the most was the active support provided by Western nations to Khalistani terrorists operating on their soil. This is a red line for India as Punjab has seen a long separatist insurgency in the 1980s. That sentiment remains alive in the res­tive province and gets fuelled by separatist elements abroad. The tone deaf approach of the US, and more egregiously Canada, has not gone down well in India. The high-powered committee has recommended action against an individual but that should not confuse anyone about India’s will to prosecute separatists.

The Big Picture

Prayagraj January 14, 2025

The Shahi Snan, or royal bath, on January 14 was the high point of Maha Kumbh 2025. The ritual dip at the Sangam is a must for the sadhus, including the Nagas, and saints belonging to the akharas that participate in the Kumbh.

Newsmaker: Saif Ali Khan

Star Trauma: The Bollywood actor was stabbed in a shocking attack by a burglar in the middle of the night

POPULAR FILM STARS usually have layers of cordons against intrusions to their privacy and se­curity. You might even expect occasional breaches to privacy but that Saif Ali Khan was attacked right inside his home was stunning. He was stabbed six times by a burglar in the middle of the night. His little children were also at home during the burglary. The gravity of the attack was evident in a piece of the knife being lodged around his spinal region when he was admitted to Lilavati Hospital. Doctors operated on him immediately and he was lucky. His team’s statement said later: “Saif Ali Khan has come out of surgery and is out of danger. He is currently in recovery and doctors are monitoring his progress.”

It is still not clear how such a security breach could happen. His flat is on the 11th floor of a high-end building in a posh neighbourhood of Bandra. Security measures ranging from CCTVs to watchmen were present there. And yet, according to the police, the assailant went up through the fire escape stairs, entered his home, where he first ran into a domestic help and when Khan intervened, stabbed him and fled. The police formed multiple teams to catch the attacker, and even roped in Daya Nayak, once famous as an encounter specialist. On Friday, one suspect was detained based on a CCTV footage but later the police clarified that the person was not related to the attack and released him. There is still no clarity on how the crime transpired. Khan’s condition has improved enough to be shifted out of the ICU. Bollywood meanwhile is still reeling in shock. ( By Madhavankutty Pillai)

Noisemaker: SN Subrahmanyan
Stare and Dare

Larsen & Toubro Chairman SN Subrahmanyan attracted the wrong kind of publicity when he suggested a 90-hour work week in an undated video. The negative reactions were similar to when Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy advised Indian youth to follow 70-hour work weeks. An L&T official said that Subrahmanyan has never mandated a 90-hour work week and is a caring boss. The remarks at an internal meeting, she said, were casual in nature and misinterpreted. It might be that Subrahmanyan was extolling the virtues of hard work, but the reference to how long can a husband or wife stare at each other on a Sunday are out of sync with Gen Z. Younger workers seem to value quality time with friends and family more and being an “absent dad” is not cool. In Murthy’s case, the billionaire entrepreneur remains unrepentant, saying he does not believe in work-life balance.

Ideas: Transparency

The Election Commission has come out with an advisory asking all political parties fielding candidates in the Delhi Assembly elections to make it transparent whenever artificial intelligence tools are used in campaign material. It stated, “Clearly label any image, video, audio or other materials generated or significantly altered by AI technologies with a notation such as ‘AI-Generated’ / ‘Digitally Enhanced’ / ‘Synthetic Content’.”

This approach is not just pragmatic but possibly the only way to ensure transparency. There is the option of outrightly banning use of AI but then any ban is only as effective as the ability to execute it. With the technology continuing to improve radically, soon it will be near impossible to distinguish between what is real and what is AI generated.

For instance, suppose AI is used to create a clip about a political opponent, then it usually falls under the category of fake news. But when parties are incentivised to be transparent, then they can still make an AI clip and turn it into satire, which could be just as useful in a campaign. Transparency, when voluntary and enthusiastically done, is a check on anyone else who is not being transparent. Asking for a label makes compliance easy and when everyone is sailing on the same boat, should one party decide to break the rule, there is the peer pressure of exposure. World over AI is becoming a potent election campaigning tool. Processes designed to not drive it underground will make it possible to turn it into a force for the positive.

Indian NavyIndian politicsNarendra ModiPannunSaif Ali Khan