Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi 

Overview

The Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses was established in November 1965 to initiate studies and research in areas relating to national security and the impact of defence measures on economic, political and social developments. Over the years, the Institute has evolved as a premier research institution, carrying out policy-related authoritative studies on national and international security issues. The institute is a registered body under the Registration of Societies Act of 1860 and is governed by an Executive Council elected by the members of the Institute. The Institute is accessible to political leaders, scholars, the media, service officers and others who have interest in issues concerning national security.

Activities : 

Conferences/Seminars/Workshops

The Institute organized the  5^th Asian Security Conference with the theme “Asian Security and China in 2000-2010” during January 27-29,  2003. The Conference was attended by foreign participants from 22 countries including policy makers and opinion shapers from Asian countries and major powers.  

IDSA organised a national Workshop on "Terrorist Organisation and Financial flows (TOFF)" on 13 July  2002.  The Workshop was attended by participants from different disciplines.  The Institute also organised 34 Round Table Discussions with visiting scholars, diplomats and foreign delegations/teams.

IDSA Journals

Starting January,  2002, the Institute’s journal ‘Strategic Analysis’ has become a quarterly issue. IDSA also brings out the ‘Strategic Digest’ which is a monthly compendium of information from open sources which focuses on weapons of mass destruction issues, military doctrines, arms transfers and related technology developments and also includes important speeches, declarations and agreements.  A monthly bulletin called Current Journal Contents which lists the contents of about 140 crore journals received in the library is brought out.

Training Programmes : The Institute also conducts training programmes and imparts training to  Government officers both from civil and military streams.

Research Activities :  On the basis of their research projects and areas of interest, ISDA  has grouped the research faculty into ten ‘Clusters’.  The Clusters are amongst others required to apply collective and focused attention to the subject and area; attempt joint articles and research activities; ensure internal ‘refereeing’ and assistance to other researchers within the Cluster and mentoring of junior colleagues.  The Clusters meet once every week and members of other Clusters are free to join the proceedings. 

The Institute's research faculty has contributed 28 papers in various referred journals including Strategic Analysis.  The Institute has published the following books during the year:-

a) Iraq War 2003:  Rise of the New 'Unilateralism' by K. Santhanam and the IDS Insight Team; IDSA, New Delhi, Ane Books Publications, 2003 

b) Jihadis in Jammu and Kashmir; A Portrait Gallery by K. Santhanam; Sreedhar, Sudhir Saxena, Manish, IDSA, New Delhi; Sage Publication India Pvt. Ltd. 2003  and

c) Navies of South Asia by K.R. Singh; IDSA, New Delhi; Rupa & Company, 2002.

Information Resources : The Institute has an excellent information resource base in national security and defence strategy. It has a collection of over 46,500 books and a number of CD-ROM databases.  In addition, more than 300 current journals are received, in print as well as electronic/online versions. 

Institute’s Website : The Institute maintains a website at http://www.idsa-india.org/  Various new activities, as well as progress on the ongoing activities are presented on the website. The complete text of the Institute’s journal “Strategic Analyses” is also available on the website.

The Ministry of Defence administers jointly with the concerned State Governments three Mountaineering Institutes namely Himalayan Mountaineering Institutes (HMI), Darjeeling  in West Bengal, Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM), Uttarkashi in Uttranchal and Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering & Winter Sports (JIM), Aru with temporary HQ at Batote in J&K.  These Institutes are run as private Registered Societies and have been conferred the status of autonomous bodies.  Raksha Mantri is the President of these Institutes.  The Chief Minister of the respective State is the Vice-President of the Institute.  These Institutes are governed by separate Executive Councils consisting of members elected by the General Bodies, nominees from amongst donors and/or persons who are likely to promote the cause of the Institute and representatives of Central and State Governments.  A representative each of the Ministry of Defence and State Government  acts as Secretary of the Institute.

The HMI, Darjeeling was founded in November 1954 by the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to commemorate the historical ascent of Mount Everest by Late Tenzing Norgay along with Sir Edmund Hillary on May 29, 1953 .  With the establishment of this Institute, an impetus to mountaineering as a sport was provided in India.  To give further boost to mountaineering and to inculcate the spirit of adventure in youth, the NIM, Uttrakashi was set up in October 1965 and the JIM at Aru in J&K in October 1983.  Due to disturbances in the valley, students were reluctant to come to Aru for training.  Accordingly, it was decided to shift the Institute temporarily to Batote on the Jammu side of Banihal in August 1990.  However, in view of certain adverse reports regarding law & order, regular training courses conducted by the Institute were temporarily suspended from April 1996.  The Institute is now conducting some courses on ad-hoc basis.

The broad objectives of the Mountaineering Institutes are:-

(a)       to impart theoretical and practical training in mountaineering and rock climbing techniques;

            (b)      to awaken interest in and love for mountains and exploration; and

(c)      to encourage and provide training in Winter Sports

The Institutes conduct Basic and Advance Mountaineering courses, Method of Instruction Course (MOI), Search & Rescue Course (S&R) and Adventure Courses.  The syllabi, duration, age limit of participants and grading system for various types of courses are almost uniform at all the Institutes.  During the lean period, the Institutes detail their Instructors to conduct rock-climbing courses at the request of Mountaineering Clubs/Organisations around the country.  The Instructors also join various expeditions.

Trainees for these courses come from all parts of the country and include Army, Air Force, Navy, ITBP and BSF Personnel, NCC Cadets and private students. Foreigners are also now permitted to join the courses.

The Institutes conducted the following courses during the year upto July, 2003 :-

Institute

Basic

Advanced

Adventure

MOI

S&R

HMI

NIM

JIM

02

03

04

01

02

02

01

02

02

--

--

02

--

01

--

Courses conducted by JIM are adhoc courses.

HMI also conduct special Rock Climbing Course for 'Ghatak Platoon' of 20 Mountain Division.

NIM also conducted a special course for National Geographical Channel, Special Climbing Course for RIMC, Dehradun and special adventure course for ONGC/IMD, Dehradun.

           The number of students trained in these courses are as under:-

Institute
(HMI/NIM)

Basic

Advanced

Adventure

MOI

S&R

Men

Women

136

118

33

34

50

62

-

--

11

04

JIM has trained a total number of 159 students in various ad hoc training courses conducted upto July 2003. JIM has also organised environment awareness camps in which 2600 students participated during the year upto July 2003.

The Institute at Darjeeling and Uttarkashi have separate stores of mountaineering equipment for loan to the Indian Mountaineering Expeditions on nominal hire charges.

The construction of the Museum project at HMI Darjeeling is at an final stage.

To commemorate the first historic ascent of Mt. Everest of 29th May, 1953, the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI), Darjeeling launch an expedition to Mt. Everest (North Ridge Side). The expedition was flagged-of in the last week of March 2003.  The team successfully scaled the highest mountain in the world on 21st May, 2003 from a very challenging and difficult route (North Ridge Side).  

Official Language Division

Official Language Division of the Ministry of Defence is the nodal Agency to implement the Official Language Policy of the Government in the Ministry, its Subordinate Offices, Defence Undertakings etc. Implementation of orders/ instructions regarding use of Hindi in official work is monitored by the Official Language Division through various channels, such as quarterly progress reports, annual evaluation reports, quarterly meetings of departmental Official Language Implementation Committees, Hindi Salahkar Samities and inspections of the offices located all over the country. The other main functions of this Division are :-

(i)         to translate the material received from various offices, divisions and sections of the Ministry;

(ii)         to impart training to staff mainly in Hindi, Hindi stenography and Hindi typing through the Hindi Teaching Scheme of the Ministry of Home Affairs; and

(iii)        to propagate and promote the use of Hindi in official work by organizing Hindi workshops, seminars, sammelans etc. and by encouraging various incentive schemes introduced in the Ministry.

Like previous years, Official Language Division fixed certain targets for itself, such as the organization of Hindi Workshop, inspection of different sections of the Ministry, nomination of 56 officials for training in Hindi, Hindi Stenography and Hindi Typing courses; organization of 4 meetings each of the two Official Language Implementation Committees etc. All these targets have been fully achieved. Work relating to selection of best in-house journals published by various defence organizations during the year for awarding cash prizes etc. is in progress.

The Official Language Division remained engaged in translation work throughout the year. The material received for such translation included general orders, notifications, resolutions, cabinet notes, administrative and other reports, parliament questions etc. Besides, material relating to PAC matters, audit paras, Consultative Committee meeting, Standing Committee, Annual Report, papers to be laid in the Parliament, VIP references, Republic Day, Independence Day and the investiture ceremony was also translated into Hindi during the year.

In accordance with the targets fixed for imparting training to the staff in Hindi, Hindi Stenography and Hindi Typing, efforts were made to nominate maximum number of officials in these courses. During the year, out of  50 officials nominated for Hindi classes, 28 were for Hindi (Prabodh, Praveen and Pragya), 12 for Hindi stenography and 10 for Hindi Typing.

In order to encourage more and more staff to work in Hindi, two Hindi workshops were organized till September, 2003, in which 53 officials participated. The purpose of these workshops was to motivate the officials to use Hindi in their official work. For this, the participants were provided practice exercises in the respective subjects and were also apprised of the provisions of the Official Language Act and Rules made thereunder to facilitate them to work in Hindi with more confidence. The subordinate offices, Inter-Services Organisations and Public Sector Undertakings under the Ministry of Defence  were also advised to organize such Hindi workshops in their respective offices to encourage their staff to use Hindi in their official work. Officers of Official Language Division assisted them in organizing Hindi workshops and provided them necessary guidance in this regard.

Monitoring : The overall monitoring regarding the progressive use of Hindi in the Ministry of Defence Secretariat, the three Services Headquarters, Inter-Services Organisations and Defence Undertakings is done by two separate Departmental Official Language Implementation Committees, which meet regularly after every three months. These Committees review progress made in the  subordinate offices for implementing the Official Language Policy of the Union more effectively. The Committee of Parliament on Official Language visited various Defence Organisations located all over the country including Delhi, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Mysore, Wellington and Mumbai etc. for conducting Official Language inspections.

Hindi Pakhwara : A Hindi Pakhwara was observed during September 1-14, 2003 in the Ministry. Similar Pakhwaras were celebrated in various defence organizaions including the three Service Headqarters, Inter-service Organisations, Defence Public Sector Undertakings etc. during the month of September, 2003 itself. The message issued on this occasion by the Home Minister and Raksha Mantri were circulated among all officers and staff of the Ministry as also among three Services Headquarters and various Defence Organisations spread all over the country. The officers and staff  were motivated to do their official work in Hindi. To achieve this end, various competitions were organized during the fortnight in which 177 officials participated and out of which, 113 officials were selected for award of prizes amounting to Rs. 48,300/-.

Salahkar Samities : There are two Hindi Salahkar Samities in the Ministry of Defence – one for the Department of Defence and Department of Defence Research & Development and the other for the Department of Defence Production. The meetings of these Committees are organized on August 8, 2003 and July 1, 2003 respectively.

A closer security dialogue and strengthening of defence cooperation with friendly countries remains an important objective and component of our overall defence and foreign policies.  These have been reinforced by the major changes that have taken place in recent years in the global security, political and strategic environment.

India too has reacted to these developments by developing an expanding web of defence relations with a wide-range of countries. These have taken the form of increased defence-related visits and dialogue on security challenges, port calls etc. and defence cooperation in the form of training exchanges, combined exercises, sourcing, development,  production and marketing of defence equipment, and other forms of cooperation .

Since March 2003, the Defence Ministers of France (April 2003), Japan (May 2003), Tanzania and Singapore (October 2003), Mongolia (November 2003), Brazil, South Africa and Sudan (December 2003) and Russia (January 2004) have visited India on bilateral visits. Outgoing visits have included the landmark visit of Raksha Mantri to China in April 2003, his visit to Brazil in July 2003, Ukraine and the Czech Republic in October 2003 and to Kyrghyzatan and Kazakhstan in November 2003. Raksha Mantri's participation in "Shangri La Dialogue" in Singapore in May-June 2003 also provided an opportunity for him to meet his counterparts and security experts from many countries.

Defence cooperation also formed the agenda of high-Ievel, Heads of Government/State visits from Poland, Djibouti, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Hungary, Mauritius and Seychelles and in outbound visits at the level of Prime Minister to Russia amongst others. Defence cooperation also featured during incoming and outgoing visits by Foreign Ministers and/or Ministers dealing with the defence-related industries of a large number of countries, as also Congressional and parliamentary representatives from countries such as the US and Russia.

Over the years India has developed robust institutionalized security dialogues and defence consultative mechanisms at the Defence Secretary's level with a growing number of  countries. Those that have met since April this year have included the India-UK Joint Consultative Group (June, 2003), the India-Italy Joint Committee (July, 2003), the India-US Defence Policy Group (August, 2003), the lst India-Vietnam Security Dialogue and the India-France High Committee on Defence Cooperation (November, 2003) and the India-South Africa Joint Defence Committee and the India-Israel Joint Defence Committee and the India-Israel Joint Working Group on Defence Cooperation (December, 2003). The Ministry of Defence also participated in security dialogues led by the Ministry of External Affairs with Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman etc. Defence-related visits at other levels also took place with Sri Lanka, Ukraine, the Republic of Korea and Mongolia.

Visits at the level of Chiefs of Defence/General/Joint Staff or Services form a vital part of our military-to-military relationship expanding the framework of professional interaction and exchanges and enhancing mutual understanding. Chiefs of Defence/General/ Joint Staff of the Lesotho (June, 2003), US and Thailand (July, 2003), UAE, (September, 2003), UK and Djibouti (October, 2003) and Sri Lanka (December, 2003) visited India during this period. The Deputy Chief of the German Armed Forces also visited in October 2003. Reciprocal visits by friendly countries at the level of service chiefs included the visits of the Chiefs of Army of the US and Israel, Chiefs of Air Staff from Japan, Russia and Myanmar, and Chiefs of Navy from Singapore (March, 2003), the US (October, 2003) and the UK (November 2003).

From India, the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee and Chief of Naval Staff visited the UK in July, 2003, Myanmar in September, 2003, France in October, 2003 and Vietnam in December, 2003 on bilateral visits to Russia and Canada in connection with activities of the Indian Navy in June 2003, and to Singapore in November, 2003 to attend the Singapore Maritime Defence Exhibition, INDEX. The Flag Officer and C-in-C, Eastern  Command visited Pusan and Shanghai during the overseas deployment of INS Ranjit and Kulish in November, 2003. The Chief of Air Staff undertook bilateral visits to Algeria in March 2003, South Africa in September 2003, and Russia in October 2003. He also attended the Latin American Defentec Exhibition and Air Show in Rio de Janiero in April 2003, visited Maldives in July 2003 and participated in the Global Air Chiefs Conference in the US in September 2003. The Chief of Army Staff visited Bhutan in March 2003, Nepal in Apri12003, Russia in June 2003 and Singapore and Phillippines in September-October 2003.

Military-level exchanges at other levels with the US, China, France, South Africa and Sri Lanka were noteworthy. With the US and France they took the form of joint exercises and training exchanges, with South Africa and Sri Lanka, mainly training and exchange of experiences, and with China they formed an important confidence-building measure.

Indian delegations have also participated in various security cooperation meetings of subjects like peacekeeping operations, confidence building measures, disaster management, search and rescue, anti-piracy, counter-terrorism, etc., through mechanisms sponsored by various international organizations as also the Asian Regional Forum, the US, Japan and security think-tanks. Vice-Chief of Army represented the Indian Army at the Pacific Armies Management Seminar in the Republic of Korea in September 2003. The GOC-in-C, Northern Command participated in a military conference in Australia in September-October 2003. The Quarter Master General participated in an USS-sponsored seminar on South Asian security in Oman in December 2003.

A noteworthy feature in our defence cooperation with foreign countries this year have been the increased frequency of activities such as joint exercises with friendly armed forces. Prominent among them during the year have been joint and combined exercises involving the contingents of army and air force with the US, naval exercises with Oman, Russia, France, Singapore and China. These exercises are growing in scale and complexity.

Good will visits by Indian naval ships are a prominent feature of our naval diplomacy. The circumnavigation of the sailing training ship, INS Tarangini, and the commissioning of the INS Talwar and Trishul were utilized to call on a number of ports in Europe, Africa and Asia and build ties with navies of the transit countries. The Navy has also provided surveillance assistance to Indian Ocean neighbours and coastal security during the African Union Summit held in Maputo, Mozambique in July 2003. Other major overseas deployments of the Indian navy on good will visits during this period have included the visit of the INS Ranjit and INS Kulish to Pusan and Shanghai in November, 2003.