Navy unfolds its vision for transformation
The Naval Senior Officers' Conference, which commenced
in New Delhi today, was inaugurated by the Chief of
the Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash.
Apart from addressing a host of other issues, there
are three discernible themes that provide the
underpinning to this year's SOC. The first of these is
safety consciousness. The Navy is acutely conscious
of the stringent demands in an extremely complex,
technologically advanced and very expensive equipment
intensive environment for a high standard of human
interface - whether by way of operators, maintainers,
or logistic personnel. Several innovative and
far-reaching measures have been initiated to ensure
that safety remains foremost in the Navy's
consciousness and to arrest any nascent tendency
towards neglect in this regard. Taking into account
the mishaps in recent times, the Navy Chief Admiral
Arun Prakash stressed, "The safety roadmap will ensure
that our operations are not only effective, but also
conducted safely."
The second theme revolves about the completion of the
Navy-wide effort (that was begun a few years ago) to
provide a firm intellectual and theoretical foundation
upon which the edifice of a resurgent Indian Navy,
shaped to address the realities of the twenty-first
century, would be built. This 'foundation' comprised
three capstone documents. The first was the "Maritime
Doctrine", released in 2004, which is essentially a
'doctrinal primer'. The second was the "Maritime
Capability Perspective Plan", a classified blueprint
of the force-level structure of the Navy for the next
decade and a half. This was reviewed and accepted by
the Commanders' Conference that was held from the 4 May this year. The final segment of the 'trilogy'
entitled "Freedom of the Seas: India's Maritime
Strategy", which is a classified document, will be
released by the Raksha Mantri, Mr Pranab Mukherjee
during the SOC on 17 Oct. These three documents
represent the triumvirate of current naval thinking
and their publication marks three extremely important
milestones along the development path being
travelled-upon by the Indian Navy.
The third theme of this year's SOC is the bold
acceleration of the process-of-change undertaken by
the Indian Navy. Parivartan, as the Navy likes to call
it, clearly enunciates and guides the overall
direction and orientation of the process of 'Difficult
Managing Change'. For this purpose, the Navy has
published a set of three guidance-documents. The
first - and the overarching one - is entitled the
"Vision Statement of the Indian Navy". The second is
an introductory-primer entitled "What Does
Transformation Mean for the Indian Navy?', which
provides the contextual meaning of term
'Transformation', and identifies the drivers of
'Transformation' vis-à-vis the Indian Navy. The third
- and the most contemporary one - is the "Strategic
Guidance for Transformation", which was released today
by the Navy Chief. Addressing the Naval commanders
during his inaugural address, the Admiral stated,
"Great changes will be brought about in the Navy in
coming years. With change being inevitable, we can
either embrace it, or have it thrust upon us. That is
the reason I have laid great emphasis on issues of
transformation, formulating new doctrines and
concepts."
These are the main themes that are expected dominate
much of the deliberations and proceedings of SOC -
2006. It is clearly obvious that these themes
incorporate issues that are of fundamental import to
the Navy and to the country and although they will
continue to be deliberated-upon in the next several
conclaves of the Indian Navy's senior leadership, it
is particularly fitting that discussions and debate on
them should be initiated in the current Senior
Officers Conference, which will be the last that is
presided over by Admiral Arun Prakash, the Chief of
the Naval Staff, and the individual who has ushered
these initiatives in the Indian Navy.
VG/AK
(Release ID :21373)