Col Ashok Mor, the Officer In charge NCC at IIT Kanpur told that Lt Gen Raj Shukla, PVSM, YSM, SM, ADC General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) ARTRAC, A graduate of the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy, Lieutenant General Raj Shukla was commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery in December 1982. In a career spanning four decades he commanded a Medium Regiment in the Eastern & Desert Theatres, Infantry Brigade in Counter Insurgency Operations, Infantry Division along the Line of Control in the Valley and a Pivot Corps along the Western Borders. An alumni of Defence Services Staff College Wellington, College of Defence Management, and National Defence College. He has authored numerous articles / publications. The General Officer assumed the Command of Army Training Command (ARTRAC) w.e.f 01 May 20.

Our first-year student Sidharth Govil gave a brief introduction about the speaker.

Lt Gen Raj Shukla it his speech brought out the importance of Artificial Intelligence, the intimate connect with the Defence Forces and the critical role of IIT, s in strengthening this connect between technology National Security.To counter the strategy, IIT, s will be central to this endeavor to develop the cutting-edge technology and innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.

In the recent times the impact of technology has been profoundly disruptive. In the past Military doctrines formed technology’s so investments in DARPA drove the internet. Now tech is driving the operational cycles. Earlier 100,s of operatorswere needed to drive a system in an Aircraft Carrier but today you have one operator driving 100,s of systems in form of drones. Technology in making unequal’s making equal and gave the example of Sep 2019, the drones Air strikes in Saudi Arabia on Aramco being absolutely precise. In case of Armenia and Azerbaijan drone attacks driven by edge technology in Artificial Intelligence. Recently in Libya the drone program to attack target without data connectivity between the operator and the ammunitions. The age of leather weapon systems that was dream earlier has arrived. The command chains have compressed and lethality has increased. The AI will not only be the modern holy grail of technology but will create new digital colonies and satellites and will create new winners in the strategic and military with new power centers in the world. AI will be compressing the OODA(Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) cycle.

He emphasized on civil military fusion for better tomorrow. The scientists, soldiers, technologists, enthrones, corporates, dreamers and startups all have to get together to achieve a collective aim of Nation First.

He gave the example of USA, where in they have tied up with Elon Musk for military research. In China Mil Science talent hunt stations have been opened abroad by the PLA and it has started the Thousand talent plan in 5G, Quantum etc. He talked of removing artificial boundaries to share technology for the National Interest.

Lt Gen Raj Shukla talked about China’s and resources of Rear Earths. We need to work on Rear Earth processing. He referred to Israel and Palestinian attacks and said that this was a great combination of super cognition, lethality and sophistication. The facial recognition with sophistication was the tool. The Alchemist program of Israel to safeguard its soldiers and what not.

It makes eminent sense to partner with IIT’s eco system as IIT’s are citadel for world class engineering. The talent, influence and power that incubate and radiate in academia research and business pursuit is compared with Cambridge and Oxford in the heyday of the British empire.

We are doing some projects with IIT’s and we welcome you all to send your proposals for the funding of Research and implementation in the Defence.

In response to the questions by the professors and students, Army Commander promised to consider the projects worth crores for the IIT Kanpur and remove the bottlenecks if any for clearing them as per the new policy.

The interaction was first of its kind when the top decision-making authority from the Defence / the user took such a big initiative for helping the research and academia. On the sidelines Army Commander also considered to send more Defence officers for PhD in to various fields in IIT’s. Lt Gen Raj Shukla also shared his team details to be contacted if in need of any help. In a answer to one of the Defence officer doing M Tech to visit abroad for research and presentation. The General said that though Army is sending people abroad but requested him to send in case in particular and promised to consider it.

The talk of Army Commander ARTRAC is likely to bring in hundreds of crore of investment in to research or some for or the other in IIT”s.

Prof. Siddhartha Panda, Dean of Student Affairs (DOSA) from IIT Kanpur side proposed a vote of thanks along with Col Ashok Mor.

Army commander Lt Gen Raj Shukla thanked IIT Kanpur for this wonderful interaction and response to his speech to the IIT Kanpur fraternity. Col Ashok Mor promised that such interactions would be more frequent to increase the mutual benefits to the technology base at IIT and the Defence needs.