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The sudden eruption of Covid 19 and the Chinese incursions in Eastern Ladakh were the two black swan events that cast a dark shadow on India largely and the world as a whole, in the recent past. For India, the two experiences hold out a slew of lessons, Indian Army Chief Gen MM Naravane pointed out in this exclusive interview with Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale. In Eastern Ladakh too, it was clear that it’s our fight alone.
The recognition of these truths brings about an unidirectional focus on self-sufficiency. In fact, 85 per cent of the Army’s contracts this year have been given to Indian companies, including the private sector. However, the private sector needs to mature to higher levels. They need our encouragement and financial support. The Army is assisting them in terms of understanding the environment in which the equipment has to function.
Author, thought leader and one of South Asia's leading strategic analysts, Nitin A. Gokhale has forty years of rich and varied experience behind him as a conflict reporter, Editor, author and now a media entrepreneur who owns and curates two important digital platforms, BharatShakti.in and StratNewsGlobal.com focusing on national security, strategic affairs and foreign policy matters.
At the beginning of his long and distinguished career, Gokhale has lived and reported from India’s North-east for 23 years, writing and analysing various insurgencies in the region, been on the ground at Kargil in the summer of 1999 during the India-Pakistan war, and also brought live reports from Sri Lanka’s Eelam War IV between 2006-2009.
Author of over a dozen books on wars, insurgencies and conflicts, Gokhale relocated to Delhi in 2006, was Security and Strategic Affairs Editor at NDTV, a leading Indian broadcaster for nine years, before launching in 2015 his own digital properties.
An alumni of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii, Gokhale now writes, lectures and analyses security and strategic matters in Indo-Pacific and travels regularly to US, Europe, South and South-East Asia to speak at various international seminars and conferences.
Gokhale also teaches at India’s Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), the three war colleges, India's National Defence College, College of Defence Management and the intelligence schools of both the R&AW and Intelligence Bureau.
He tweets at @nitingokhale
