MUMBAI: The cloud cover over Balakot (in Pakistan) during the 2019 strikes became a lesson in how modern wars are judged as much by evidence as by execution, former Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari said while addressing students at IIT Bombay’s 29th edition of Techfest. Three former service chiefs from the same 61st course of the National Defence College shared the stage for a symposium. Referring to Operation Sindoor, the former IAF chief said intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and bomb damage assessment are now critical to military operations. “During the Balakot operation, persistent overcast skies prevented us from taking pictures,” he said, adding that the absence of imagery allowed the adversary to sanitise the area and led people to question whether the strikes even took place. Warning of rapidly changing battlefields, Chaudhari said there is currently “no defence against a hypersonic missile,” a capability already used in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.Former Army chief Gen Manoj Pande spoke on leadership and values, describing the Indian Army as “a microcosm of the nation” that reflects India’s defining principles, “most importantly its secular nature.” Addressing a hall packed with school and college students from across Mumbai, Pande urged the young audience to chase their dreams with passion, stressing that leadership flows from organisational culture, accountability, and decision-making under pressure.Former Navy chief Admiral R Hari Kumar highlighted the strategic importance of the seas, noting that while nearly 70% of the Earth is covered by water, only about 5% lies within national maritime boundaries, with the rest governed by global maritime laws. Leaders have historically known little about the oceans, he said, recalling that Emperor Akbar is believed to have seen the coastline only once in his lifetime. As India’s economy grows, Kumar said, most of its trade will move across open seas, making maritime security central to national prosperity. Calling shipbuilding the “mother of industries,” he cited India’s first indigenously built aircraft carrier Vikrant, which sustained 2,000 direct jobs and generated 6.4 ancillary jobs for each direct job.
