India can create new frontiers in Underwater Domain and Cybersecurity through education and research.
To understand the geostrategic importance of oceans, it is important to understand the concept of “The Global Commons”. The Global Commons are the areas beyond jurisdiction of sovereignty that no one State controls, but on which all rely. The four distinct areas of Global Commons are Maritime, Space, Ocean and Cyber.
As a result of the race for global dominance, each of the four Global Commons has become vulnerable to intrusion, exploitation and attacks by competitors, creating significant friction among stakeholders. Restrained by science, technology and economic resources, most countries lack the capability to meaningfully use the Global Commons. Countries now need to adapt to these changes because it is impossible to completely close off the areas belonging to the Global Commons and refuse entry for new entities.
Shifting Geopolitical Equations
Today, global politics is undergoing a great shift. This change is largely due to the rise of China, the deepening of globalisation and interdependence of nations. Despite expressing at every opportunity that it doesn’t pursue a hegemonic agenda, China has indicated that it aims to be a dominant power by opening its first overseas military base in Djibouti in East Africa. India must prioritise competition with China due to its growing economic and military strength, increasing aggressiveness, demonstrated intent to dominate regional waters and remake the international order in its favor.
In this context, Global Commons cited above are indispensable for India to maintain its influence in international politics, global economy and transportation routes. Among the Global Commons, we can highlight the oceans as primus inter pares, with Underwater Domain coming to the fore as priority. Approximately 90% of the world trade is made possible by the oceans. In fact, human civilisation has been able to reach its present level due to the opportunities offered by oceans, and the world’s greatest powers have faced the fact that controlling the oceans is a sine qua non.
The importance of Cyberspace, with new technologies such as artificial intelligence, autonomy, additive manufacturing, quantum computing generating enormous disruptive change (as mentioned in the NATO 2030 report prepared by the NATO Reflection Group), cannot be overemphasised and therefore, Cybersecurity is another critical area in the Global Commons.
Chanakya, the ancient Indian teacher, military strategist, economist, jurist and royal advisor underlined the importance of competitive intelligence of neighboring states. A century before him, Chinese master military strategist Sun Tzu had also said: “ … what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is “foreknowledge”. Foreknowledge of the above two global commons is a must for India.
India’s Underwater Domain Challenges
India is blessed with a fertile and long coastline of approx. 7,516.6 km, thus enjoying a unique maritime position. Nine of its 29 states are coastal and the nation’s geography includes 1,382 islands. There are nearly 199 ports that handle approx. 1,400 million tons of cargo each year.
Underwater Domain (UD) awareness is defined as “our eagerness to “know” what is happening in the undersea realm of our maritime areas.” Thus, in the present UD scenario, foreknowledge is extremely critical, not only for security, but also for trade, biodiversity and natural resources. UD encompasses key water strategies for India in nationally critical areas such as the Blue Economy, which entails emerging industries including renewable energy, aquaculture, marine biotechnology, fisheries etc; Water Resource Management i.e optimisation, preservation and expansion of the existing water sources; Acoustics, a technique of communicating “below” water levels. etc. The Indian Navy is also generating cooperative synergies in UD among the Indian Ocean countries.
China has engaged in the high seas, airspace, and even outer space for many years, but it was not until very recently that it showed that it has the capability to use these areas strategically. China has established geo-acoustic description of the seabed in the East China Sea which has helped it to compete with the US. According to a recent survey by Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (Center for Strategic and International Studies), between April 2019 and March 2020, China deployed 25 maritime survey missions in the Indo-Pacific. It is well-known that China uses civilian research vessels to gather crucial oceanographic data, such as the sub-sea and seabed conditions, for military purposes.
Severity of Cyber Threats to India
The USA was the most cyber targeted nation in the world in 2019, but India surpassed it in the second quarter. Sectors attacked in India were critical infrastructure followed by banking, defence and manufacturing, as also Twitter accounts of key personnel and politicians, the GST network, the Passport Seva Kendra, websites of key political parties, to name a few. Cyberattacks also pose a threat to the Indian IT Industry, which is the largest contributor to the Indian services and export sector.
Recently, the electricity supply for entire Mumbai was disconnected and the city was in the dark for one whole night. Although the cause attributed to cyber attack by China turned out to be a false alarm, the Minister of Power confirmed that attacks have been made on India’s Northern and Southern Power Dispatch centres and malware Trojan Horse was found in Mumbai City’s Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system. Thus the risks of total collapse is increasing.
what is happening in the undersea realm of our maritime areas”
A security intelligence firm, Recorded Future, has mentioned that India has been targeted by the China-based group RedEcho as a concerted campaign against its critical infrastructure, including seaports. The purpose in many instances was not to cause immediate damage, but to stay in the victim’s computer system for the long term, study the security deployed within the computer network, and then gather information of strategic importance.
Lt Gen (Retd) D B Shekatkar, president of the think tank Forum for Integrated National Security (FINS) stated that there would be more attempts of cyberattacks from India’s adversaries in the years to come, which could be “deadlier” than terrorist attacks. A deadly cyberattack could also affect a nuclear facility, or the air traffic control system, the power grid, or even disable the war machinery during war. It’s high time we woke up to such challenges, and remain 10 steps ahead of our adversaries — with close coordination with defence agencies.
Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat has mentioned that neighbouring country’s (China) capability to carry out cyber attacks which can disrupt a large amount of our systems is one of the biggest threats. India, therefore, has to focus on cyber defence and needs to work on offensive cyber capabilities to continue with the systems either through an alternate or preventive means.
In the NASSCOM Summit Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also urged India to build a strong workforce of Cyber Security professionals urgently.
How will Inter University Centre (IUC) for Underwater Domain and Cybersecurity benefit India ?
Considering the strategic criticality of Underwater Domain (UD) and Cybersecurity, and difficulty in coordinating various institutions, databases and knowledge repositories that are dispersed, it is felt that a central high level institution will help India consolidate its expertise.The University Grants Commission (UGC), in the last three decades, has established illustrious autonomous Inter University Centers (IUCs) within the university system. The objectives of IUC as envisioned by the Government of India are:
1.To provide common advanced centralised facilities/services to universities not able to invest in infrastructure and other inputs.
2.To offer the best expertise in each field to teachers and researchers.
3. To provide access to research and teaching community to the state-of-the-art equipment and library facilities comparable to international standards.
At present, eight Inter University Centers are functioning within the university system. The foundational purpose of the Cybersecurity and UD IUC is to be a “Centre of Excellence” in all aspects of these fields, and to undertake the following:
• Development, co-creation and authentication of domain knowledge.
• Conducting and collaborating for Research and Development in diverse areas of UD.
• Enable technological transfers and capabilities to industry and collaborate with international research organisations. With enhanced capabilities will come indigenisation and innovations suitable for Indian situations.
• IUC will forge collaborations between stakeholders in the existing UD and Cybersecurity ecosystem so that they do not work independently but in an “integrative” manner.
• UD and Cybersecurity IUC will cross-pollinate ideas among various academic disciplines.
• The IUCs will contribute, promote and facilitate capability building in all aspects of UD and Cybersecurity as highly qualified and skilled professionals will be required.
In summary, these IUCs will propel India’s growth story and security journey to a new geopolitical, geoeconomical and geostrategic level.
*The writer is Advisor Blue Economy, Maritime Research Centre, Pune and was a Member of the CII Cybersecurity Delegation to Israel.
