By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd) Former Director General of Information Systems, Indian Army

The Union Minister for Defence, Shri Manohar Parrikar addressing at the inaugural ceremony of the Arpan Software, in New Delhi on July 02, 2015. The Chief of Army Staff, General Dalbir Singh is also seen.

The Union Minister for Defence, Shri Manohar Parrikar and the Chief of Army Staff, General Dalbir Singh inaugurating the Arpan Software, at a function, in New Delhi on July 02, 2015.

A day after PM Modi launched the Digital India Week, the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar formally launched Army’s Arpan 3.0 on July 2. Arpan 3.0 is an autonomous software that the Army is rolling out for its over 11 lakh soldiers to provide them access to their service records and details, from salary and leave to promotion and postings.

Arpan 3.0 (Army Record Offices Process Automation) has already been tested in seven of the 45 Record Offices of the Army pan India. With Arpan 3.0, all JCOs and below will be able to access their records.. It will take another year to automate all the 45 Record Offices. The eventual plan is to have six-seven information kiosks at battalion level to ensure all soldiers can access their records even from far-flung areas. Arpan 3.0 is a joint venture between the Army and Tech Mahindra, the project cost being Rs 1.9 crores. Obviously MoD had timed the launch of Arpan 3.0 with the launch of Digital India Week by the PM. But then Arpan 3.0 is an exclusive Army initiative. Compare this with crores of rupees allotted to CDA (O) years back for digitization of officers records but when the Rank Pay cropped up, officers were individually required to provide service details because automation was far from complete.

But this apart, what exactly has the MoD done for digitization of the military? What is the status of the digitization of the MoD, Services HQ, intra-service and inter-service linkages, digitization process to integrate procedures between the MoD and Services through HQ IDS, procurements processing, digital link with the IFA’s and the like? The Defence Communications Network should be coming out in next 2-3 years but common software development is yet to take off. Common standard protocols for the three Services have not been developed yet. Common security solution (s) are yet to be evolved and much thought is required for issues like big data handling, data storage, use of cloud etc.

Services cannot exchange operational pictures and separate screens are used even in the Interim National Command Post. Information systems have come about in disparate manner in the three services but that too mostly bottom up. Their integration and process of ‘pulling together’ existing systems and those under development requires more thought. The military can hardly be integrated at required level without a CDS. The Army’s operational information systems are likely to be fully fielded only around 2022-2024 and the Tactical Communication System (TCS), which should have been fielded a decade back, too is couple of years away. E-learning has not taken off because of lack of digitized secure line pan-military. Army Strategic Operational Information Dissemination System (ASTROIDS), a GIS based application was sanctioned in 1995 (Rs 10.75 crores allotted for Phase 1), but DRDO could not deliver the requisite software. A second sanction in 2003 for upgraded software for a network to be extended to all Commands and Corps by December 2012 also was a fiasco. Hopefully the political hierarchy will understand that the solution lies with the private industry, not DRDO. MoD needs to give much more attention to meet the Military’s mapping requirements, updating of maps, GIS and integration and application of geospatial technologies and geo-information with other technologies.

Military Survey is 30 years behind in meeting even existing routine mapping requirements of the Military, whereas Large Scale Mapping requirements are not being met at all. It is atrocious in this age to distribute CD-roms of maps instead of GIS flowing on digitized networks. Geospatial data and its exploitation, central to battlefield management, requires developing common geographic reference framework in conjunction with agencies responsible for production of geospatial data. The Services are using maps based on different datums and projections. Unless these aspects are addressed collectively, results from application developed for C4I2 Systems will remain unpredictable. The Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) is the central repository for all intelligence inputs pertaining to the three Services including IMINT and ELINT but we are yet to integrate the aspects of topography with the DIA.

Adequate resources in terms of remote sensing, ELINT payloads and cartography are not available to produce high quality fused data. In terms of cyber security, the US Military and PLA are spearheading the cyber projects in US and China respectively while our military is left bystander. Now that the Defence Minister has inaugurated Arpan 3.0, will he find time for more serious issues as mentioned herein?