4 star general
Important Functions
- Principal Military Advisor to the Union Defence Minister on all Tri-Services matters.
- Will not exercise any military command, including over the three Service Chiefs
- Act as the secretary of Department of Military Affairs
- Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee
- Will command Tri-service agencies related to Cyber and Space
- Will be member of Defence Acquisition Council
- Military Adviser to the Nuclear Command Authority
Department of Military Affairs
A new Department of Military Affairs was created by making amendments in the Allocation of Business Rules.
Mandate
- India’s Armed Force.
- Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence comprising of Army Headquarters, Naval Headquarters, Air Headquarters and Defence Staff Headquarters
- Territorial Army
- Procurement exclusive to the Services except capital acquisitions,
- Promoting jointness in procurement, training and staffing
- Facilitation of restructuring of Military Commands
- Promoting use of indigenous equipment by the Services
Information Fusion Centre-IOR
The IFC-IOR is established as a real time maritime information sharing hub for Indian Ocean region.
Aim
To keep track of both conventional and unconventional threats in our primary area of geopolitical interest spreading from the Persian Gulf to well beyond the Malacca Strait.
Functions
- The IFC-IOR will help collate shipping data from
- Partner countries with whom we have white shipping agreements (US, UK, France, Australia, Brazil, Israel, Vietnam, Oman and Mauritius)
- Multi-national networks for exchange of shipping data (For instance, Trans Regional Maritime Network signed in December 2018)
- Other Maritime Information Centers
- It also facilitates dissemination of maritime security and safety information to partner nations, constructs and agencies.
- Now India has extended the facility to other participating countries of the Goa Maritime Conclave including Indian Ocean littoral countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand from South East Asia.
BOLD-QIT (Border Electronically Dominated QRT Interception Technique)
- The project was conceived of in 2017 under Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System
- It primarily involves installation of technical systems to equip border area with sensors.
- Under the project the entire span of riverine border is covered with a data network using various communication devices.
- The communication devices used in the data network include microwave communication, OFC cables, DMR communication, day and night surveillance cameras and intrusion detection system.
- The various devices under the data network feed signals to BSF control rooms.
- This ensures quick reaction teams (QRTs) from BSF in handling cross-border crimes.
- Since electronic communication devices are used to ensure quick reaction time from BSF in border surveillance, the project is named BOLD-QRT.
- Recently the reverine border at Dhubri, Assam between India and Bangladesh is now secured with electronic surveillance with the formal launch of BOLD-QIT project.
Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device
- Car bombs or Vehicle-borne IEDs are lethal explosive devices installed in a vehicle able to detonate in various ways including remotely.
- VBIEDs are detonated using mercury switch where a tilt tube is used, one end of which is filled with mercury and other is connected to an electric circuit.
How a VBIED is usually triggered?
- Opening driver side door
- Racing the accelerator
- Switching ignition off or on
- Via timers
Note: Pulwama terror attack that claimed more than 40 lives CRPF personnel adopted ‘car bomb’, generally termed as Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device.
