In the pilot episode of BharatShakti’s special series “Brass Talks” where we interview the Director Generals of various critical departments of the Indian military, our Editor Brig. SK Chatterji (Retd) speaks to Lt Gen RK Sahni, DG Information Services, of the Indian Army.
This interaction is important because warfare is changing with technology sweeping away legacy instruments and inducting new challenges. The Directorate General of Information Systems (DG IS) is at the centre of this changing environment trying to get the Army from being network centric to data centric.
Gen. Sahni explains the role of DG IS, that includes policy making for the Army, guidelines for software and hardware to include standardization, interoperability, automation, digitization and also AI absorption.
The DG IS continues with the Theme for Year 2024 that was declared as the ‘Year of Technology Absorption’ for Indian Army. The Directorate is working towards achieving the Army Chief’s vision, and national missions. 16 technology clusters have been created to include sensors, shooters, AI etc. The DG IS also deals with application development and AI.
AI is being utilised in various applications, while being aligned to government missions. The aim also is to provide common operational and logistics picture to all commanders. The OODA loop would be compressed while its turns would increase.
As far as the man-in-the-loop is concerned, he will always remain a critical resource. His knowledge, skills an competencies will need to be rightly developed.
The forces deal with information that has high security value. The requirement is being met primarily by the DG Signals and the DG IS.
The transition to Theatre Commands is on the anvil, and Bharatshakti is also informed how the DG IS is also involved in tri-service policy making and also evolving other applications essential for operations in a Theatre Command environment requiring intimate tri-service cohesion.
More about our Guest – Lt Gen RK Sahni. The officer is from the Corps of EME and held critical appointments. He has also been an instructor in the College of Defence Management.
