Following is the
text of the President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s address at the
inauguration of the Army Wide Area Network (AWAN) here today:
“I am indeed
delighted to participate in the inauguration of the Army Wide Area Network
(AWAN) organized by the Corps of Signals, Indian Army. I am very happy to
dedicate the Army Wide Area Network to the nation on behalf of the Indian Army.
Successful fielding of AWAN covering all the hundred and seventy four signal
centers with state-of-the-art system design, system integration and system
implementation is definitely a commendable effort towards self-reliance in
establishing a complex communication and IT infrastructure in the Indian Army.
I am happy to see the integrated services framework built on top of the secured
virtual private network over the AWAN data centre. It provides messaging
services, directory services and security services along with VoIP and Internet
access amongst its signal centers under the umbrella of public key
infrastructure with digital signature. I congratulate Corps of Signals for
their work in partnership with the Indian partner Tata InfoTech Ltd. for
undertaking this work and completing it in time.
Governance
in Defence
For our country of
sub continental dimension with varying terrains and climatic conditions and the
long coastline of 7000 km, the state of the art Wide Area Network is an
important defence requirement for e-governance. The wide area network, in
addition to Army, may encompass the entire defence services and the
inter-linkages with other departments of the Government of India, particularly
those dealing with national security matters and related decision making
process. The topic I have selected for discussion today is ‘Transforming AWAN
into e-Governance Grid’.
Cyber
Space
Revolution in military
affairs has brought in new philosophies and concepts to warfare including the
present day military operations. It is now clear that Cyber-Space will add a
fifth dimension to Land, Sea, Air and Space as a theatre for war and conflict.
Cyber Space is the nerve center of Nation’s Critical Infrastructures and is
composed of hundreds of thousands of interconnected computers, servers,
routers, switches, and fiber optic cables. AWAN is a part of this nerve system.
Efficient utilization of cyber space will call for, fullest usage of the
information technology tools. Information Technology is a double edged weapon:
it provides vast opportunities but simultaneously introduces new
vulnerabilities and threats – which may arise through computers, content and connectivity
or to put it differently, hardware, software, information and networks.
Survivable
Infrastructure
Information is an
asset of the Army. The information infrastructure which you are creating today
with state-of-the-art technology and connectivity with continuous updating
mechanism is a vital operational resource and will become the central nerve
system of the Armed Forces where the bits and bytes travel in an encrypted mode
and enables the Army to face the operational challenges of the modern warfare.
Internet,
with ever increasing reach and decreasing cost, may become the only surviving
medium of communications in the future. Therefore, AWAN or for that matter any
other network, WAN or LAN cannot live in isolation. There will be many occasions,
when connectivity to Internet will become essential. For instance, if a
decision maker has to be contacted urgently, when he is out side the accessible
zone of the AWAN, there is no alternative but to make use of Internet or even
public or private cell phones and PSTNs. So, the total system has to visualize
such situations and provide software and hardware, enabling tools and
facilities for such purposes. It should be able to provide all the advantages
of connecting to the Internet and simultaneously remove all the hazards of
being connected to the Internet. This may involve incorporation of new
technologies such as deep sensors at the pocket level and shallow sensors at
the header level for detecting attacks in advance and protecting the
infrastructure.
It needs to be
emphasized and appreciated that, while firewalls and intrusion detection
systems, are very important to filter and keep a check on external links and
threats, any wide area network having large number of computer and users
connected with it, may be significantly threatened from internal users of the
network or organization. There must be systematic method to localize such
threats and take corrective actions to prevent the damages which can occur to
the information systems. To enable this we need to have fool proof
authorization system and traceability of the problem. Moreover, there is a need
to validate and test the AWAN system under maximum permissible network traffic
congestion for ensuring its reliability and availability. Hence, it is
essential to design a network infrastructure that is robust, survivable and
self-healing against all the vulnerabilities, virus attacks and hacking with
appropriate disaster recovery mechanisms.
Secured
Communication Network
Data traffic will
soon exceed voice traffic, so much so that voice and data would merge to such
an extent that independent reference to voice as a communication mode may not
be relevant. Also use of data mode ensures precise and well thought out action
oriented communications which can be subjected to robust and reliable
encryptions. In addition the system must have anti-monitoring sensors that
detect any one unauthorizedly monitoring the traffic and also make sure that
the network is protected against spoofing systems and spams. In the growing
information age when the world is moving towards Internet-2, today’s standards
of 2 mbps network may be limiting for carrying out virtual simulation under
C4I2 (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence and
Interoperability). We have to have strategic planning to enhance the bandwidth.
Authentication and non-repudiation is of utmost necessity in any e-governance
and command, control and communication network and particularly in the army
network. Authentication mechanism can start from biometrics to voice
authentication. System must have provision for monitoring the flow of
information and establishing the pattern. Any deviation from the pattern must
be detected as an anomaly and acted upon in real time.
Content
enriches AWAN
WAN has to be
utilized effectively for data exchange and decision making rather than as a
medium of point to point communication such as email or chat. It must have the
appropriate content resident on its servers and storage. The content may
include resources, imageries, previous war experiences, war gaming models,
maps, terrain information, support infrastructure, policy documents, decision
trees, protocols and databases. For example terrain information can be created
using CARTOSAT maps and create a virtual walk through in the areas of our
operational interest and give virtual training to the troops which will enable
them to face the real life challenges with smartness. The content must become
user friendly and enrich the decision making process. Making the content
available should become a priority Army Wide Operation.
E-Governance
Grid
Now, let me share
with you my personal experience in setting up and operating a typical
e-Governance Portal established at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Rashtrapati Bhavan has
introduced connectivity with our citizens, institutions, universities,
government departments and multi-lateral agencies during the last three years.
For
enabling such connectivity, all the important events in which the President
participates are brought out in the website (www.presidentofindia.nic.in) as
soon as the functions are over. Today, on an average, this website has a hit
rate of over two hundred and fifty thousand per day. On certain special
occasions like Independence Day, Republic Day, it touches nearly a million
hits. In addition, I receive over 500 e-mails and 500 letters on an average
from various people from all over the country and abroad. I also receive 100’s
of questions from the students and children every day. We have built in an e-Governance
system to study all the correspondence, letters and petitions on a day to day
basis, analyze, prioritize, verify and determine the action requirements to be
taken by Rashtrapati Bhavan and other agencies of government and the relevant
institutions both public and private. We have now established a less paper,
dynamic and secured workflow messaging system for the file movements within the
department and inter-departmental communications. We have established an
integrated multimedia teleconferencing system through which I can interact with
my team and specialists in President’s office, different parts of the country
and abroad. We have recently established home office Wi-max connectivity to all
the officers’ residences which will enable the availability of officers for
decision making 24/7. We have a Fiber broad band POP (Point of Presence) which
can connect up to 64 Mbps. We have established within Rashtrapati Bhavan
facilities for G2G and G2C connectivity and we are in the process of
establishing the high bandwidth broadband VPN connectivity with Central and
State Governments and other relevant institutions for seamless flow of
information within the existing systems and procedures of Governmental
functioning. This will soon become the part of the e-Governance GRID.
Connectivity
for E-Governance
Good governance is
being recognized as an important goal by many countries across the world. They
have taken up specific initiatives for transparent government. Freedom of
information is being redefined and supported by detailed guidelines. The
internet revolution has proved to be a powerful tool for good governance
initiatives. An important dimension of the internet potential is the
possibility of providing services any time anywhere. Along with this there is a
conscious effort to put the citizen as the centre of focus of the governance.
Citizens are being perceived as customers and clients. e-governance has to be
citizen friendly. Delivery of services to citizens is considered as a primary
function of the government. Particularly in a democratic nation of a billion
people like India, e-Governance should enable seamless access to information
and seamless flow of information across the state and central government in the
federal setup.
In
summary, I visualize e-Governance as defined below:
’A transparent smart e-governance with seamless access, secure and authentic
flow of information crossing the inter-departmental barrier and providing a
fair and unbiased service to the citizen.’
Typical scenario: I
visualize an election scenario, where a candidate files his nomination from a
particular constituency. Immediately the election officer verifies his/her
authenticity from the national citizen ID database through multifactor
authentication, through a multipurpose Citizen ID card.
His
education credentials come from the university records. His track record of
employment comes from various employers with whom he had worked. His income and
wealth resources come from the income-tax department, and other sources. His
property record comes from the registration of land authority across the
country. His credit history comes form various credit institutions like banks.
His/her civic consciousness and citizenship behaviour comes from the police
crime record. His legal track records come from the judicial system.
All the details
arrive at the computer terminal of the election officer within few seconds
automatically by the act of e-Governance software agents which crawls across
the various state and central government web services directories through the
network GRID and collects the information automatically and presents the facts
in real-time with out any bias. Artificial intelligence software analyses his
credentials and gives a rating on how successful he will be as a politician.
Election officer sitting at the remote block of the country decides on the spot
and the election process starts. All the voters vote from their home through
virtual polling booths. Is it a dream? Is it possible? If possible, when shall
we have it? Can we provide good governance to our one billion people? Can the
governance speed up the delivery system? Can the governance differentiate
between genuine transactions and spurious transaction? Can the governance
ensure immediate action for the genuine cases which satisfies the check list
for a particular service and pend the action on spurious transactions? Can this
be done by e-governance at a cost affordable by our nation? If we have this
system implemented then I can call this as a true e-Governance system for the
citizen. Similarly army can find many real life situations for example:
recruitment for various categories, selection of right officers for the right
task based on their core competence, smooth settlement of terminal benefits,
spare parts management and fast mobilization and deployment of troops for a
particular operation through the implementation of effective e-governance
system.
To establish a
system what I have visualized, we need a high bandwidth broadband connectivity
across the many Government departments such as State and District
Administration, Election commission, Universities, Banks, Home/Police
Departments, Insurance companies etc., This scenario requires vertical and
horizontal grid established across various institutions. Hence, we can draw
information and feed information from these GRIDs for seamless flow of data to
achieve the goal of good governance.
I
see a lot of parallel between the e-governance and the C4I2 network, both from
the design and utilizations points of view. I see that one can learn from the
other.
Capacity
Building
When we enter into
modern technology, it is necessary that we train the human resource through
Continuing Education Programme to undertake the newer tasks and become competent
to derive the maximum benefit that the technology can offer. As the computer
technologies have short life cycle, there is a need to be update them
periodically with new knowledge. To enable this, there will be a need for
training the personnel at all levels and at all ranks. They can also undergo
periodic refresher training based on newer modules added to the network
systems. The same AWAN can be used for imparting training through a universal
tele-education delivery system with synchronized multimedia delivery with two
way interaction. It can capture the entire session live into a knowledge
management system and will be used for review learning. Such a system has been
developed and implemented at Rashtrapati Bhavan. We will be happy to share our
experiences with you.
Conclusion
In the 21st
century warfare, we may see smart soldiers. Smart soldiers may have wearable
smart intelligent computer and communication devices which will help them in
their operational maneuvers for self-defence and also dealing with offensive
situations. These devices may have software defined radio or cognitive radio
connected to the integrated AWAN network for guidance and control system to
take effective and pro-active steps in the field. It is necessary to protect such
networks which may have wireless to wired and vice versa with seamless
integration in the AWAN data control and communication centre. I am sure AWAN
has to graduate itself into a dynamic e-Governance GRID across the Army.
I
dedicate the Army Wide Area Network to the nation and my best wishes to the
Army for success in all their noble missions through the application of
technology.
May
God bless you.”
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YSR/DS/CS