Government sets up panel to review security preparedness
July 11th, 2011 - 9:53 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, July 11 (IANS) The government has set up a panel of experts, headed by former cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra, to review of India’s preparedness to fight national security dangers in the face of new safety challenges, including cyber terrorism and threats to energy resources.
The task force has been tasked to “review the existing processes, procedures and practices in the national security system”, an official statement said Monday.
It would also suggest measures “necessary for strengthening the national security apparatus and in non-conventional areas having a bearing on the overall security situation”, the statement said.
Explaining the significance of the panel, official sources said that the security threats to India have changed in the light of challenges ranging from cyber security to energy security.
They said there were concerns about rising threat from across the eastern and western borders with China and Pakistan.
There are concerns about cyber security and safety of energy sources, they said.
This is besides the threat of cross border terrorism and the internal security challenges of Maoist insurgency.
The task force was set up more than a decade after a similar panel — the Kargil Review Committee — was formed soon after the 1999 war with Pakistan. One of its important recommenddations - the creation of a chief of defence staff (CDS) to serve as a single point of reference between the armed forces and the govenrment - is still hanging fire.
Chandra, a former ambassador to the US and a defence secretary, has several experts from various fields, including military, intelligence, diplomacy, nuclear and media, on the 13-member panel.
They include former Intelligence Bureau chief P.C. Haldar, former director of Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW;) K.C. Verma, former navy and air force chiefs Admiral Arun Prakash and Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy and former director general of military operations Lt. Gen. V.R. Raghavan.
Nuclear scientist and former chief of the Department of Atomic Energy Anil Kakodkar, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan G.Parthasarathy, former home secretary V.K. Duggal and journalist Manoj Joshi are also on the panel.
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