Maintaining a \u201chigher level of operational preparedness at all time\u201d and improving infrastructure, especially along the northern borders, were some of the key lessons from the eastern Ladakh border standoff, Army Chief General Manoj Pande said on Tuesday.
\nHe said this in response to a question during an interaction held at India Defence Conclave here.
\nWhen asked by the host what was the next step after the recent disengagement of Indian and Chinese militaries from Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area in eastern Ladakh, he said, \u201cWe have made progress in terms of disengagement from friction points. We still have two friction points where we need to move forward.
\n\u201cWe are hopeful as we move forward, talking through both military and diplomatic levels. And, I am sure we will be able to find resolution towards these friction points. That is our immediate aim to disengage from these friction points, before we look at to next step, of perhaps, de-escalation, which will involve pull back of troops.\u201d Asked about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the Army chief said, \u201cThe situation in J&K is well under control.\u201d Also, the abrogation of Article 370 and the kind of \u201cwhole of nation approach\u201d adopted have resulted in a \u201cnumber of positives\u201d, he said.
\n\u201cBesides, violence level has come down significantly. In the hinterland, protests or incidents of stone pelting have reduced,\u201d he said, adding that infiltration at LoC has come down.
\nThe eastern Ladakh border standoff erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas.
\nIndian and Chinese militaries on September 12 had moved back their frontline troops to the rear locations from the face-off site of Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area in eastern Ladakh and dismantled temporary infrastructure there as part of a five-day disengagement process.
\nPeople familiar with the development had said the two sides disengaged as per the plan which also entailed a joint verification of the entire process.
\nThough the two sides disengaged from Patrolling Point 15, there has been no progress yet on resolving the standoff in Demchok and Depsang regions.
\nAsked what were the key lessons from the standoff, Gen Pande said, one was to \u201cmaintain a higher level of operational preparedness at all time\u201d.
\n\u201cAlso, importance of infrastructure development, especially along our northern borders, and I am also referring to areas opposite Arunachal Pradesh or the Eastern Sector, besides Ladakh,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cWe also realised that there is adequate scope for infusion of new technology, and that is something we need to leverage, to enhance our abilities to address challenges in the future,\u201d the Army chief said.
\nHe said \u201cwe need to have a strategy to effectively operate in the grey zone as well, and build our capabilities\u201d.
\nSince May 2020, a significant amount of enhancement in Army\u2019s infrastructure, especially in the context of eastern Ladakh, has taken place, Gen Pande said.
\nThe Army is also focussing on \u201ccreating infrastructure, road connectivity right up to the border, and have inter-valley connection\u201d, he said, in response to another question during the interaction.
\nHe praised the \u201ctremendous support\u201d the Army received from the IAF in eastern Ladakh, saying, \u201cin a very short time we were able to induct additional troops and heavy equipment, which I feel was very remarkable\u201d.
\nOn other projects, he said the Army is using AI to enhance its capabilities. \u201cIn context of what is happening in Jammu and Kashmir, we have used AI for detecting suspicions vehicles. We have hooked on to databases of regional transport (authorities), so that any alien or foreign vehicle can be tracked. These are some of the projects that have made a very good headway,\u201d he added.
\nAlso, the startup ecosystem has been \u201cstepped up in a major way\u201d, Gen Pande said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maintaining a \u201chigher level of operational preparedness at all time\u201d and improving infrastructure, especially along the northern borders, were some of the key lessons from the eastern Ladakh border standoff, Army Chief General Manoj Pande said on Tuesday. He said this in response to a question during an interaction held at India Defence Conclave here. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-latest-news","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jammukashmirhighlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jammukashmirhighlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jammukashmirhighlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jammukashmirhighlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jammukashmirhighlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jammukashmirhighlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":879,"href":"https:\/\/jammukashmirhighlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877\/revisions\/879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jammukashmirhighlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jammukashmirhighlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jammukashmirhighlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jammukashmirhighlights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}