New Delhi: The unique thought fest and strategic summit, News9 Global Summit is back and is currently being held at the MHP Arena in Stuttgart, Germany. The theme of the summit is ‘Democracy, Demography, Development: The India–Germany Connect’. Perfectly encapsulating the avenues that are important in further strengthening the ties between India and Germany.
Panel introduction: Disrupting the defence sector
One panel discussion on such an issue was titled ‘Security, Sustainability & Scalability: Disrupting the Defence Sector’. An important and illuminating discussion, it explored a variety of topics pertinent to the defence industry today. From incorporating modern technologies and how threats have changed, the discussion among thought leaders and experts of the field was truly unmissable.
The panel was especially important in the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war and how it is reshaping global security calculus. Europe too is facing a pivotal moment in building self-reliant defence capabilities, and the panel explored how Germany—Europe’s industrial backbone—and India—one of the world’s fastest-growing defence manufacturing bases—can collaborate to meet this challenge.
The panel saw many luminaries of their field take part. Karl-Heinz Grossmann, Head of International, Airbus Defence & Space, Dr. Alexander Schellong, Managing Director, Cybersecurity, Schwarz Digits and Rajinder Singh Bhatia, President, Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers were among those present. The panel also saw the participation of Chandrashekar HG, Chairman & Managing Director, SASMOS HET Technologies, Ankit Mehta, Co-Founder & CEO, ideaForge Technology and Captain (N) Michael Giss, Commander, Regional Territorial Command, Baden-Württemberg.
Defence ties and global order
Rajinder Singh Bhatia at the start of the session talked about the changes in war and geostrategic scenarios. He talked about how one has to be self-sufficient in today’s age, and further adding that one needs “millions of startups to come which can start developing technology in the domains which can address the needs of the future.” This he said can be a “great starting point between India and Germany.”
Ankit Mehta then shared his views on technology, drones and India-Germany relations. Of drones he commented how his startup is developing drones, being one of the first ones to do so. He then talked about how in this domain “every asset you are building is resilient. It can counter what the adversary will do to prevent you from doing its job. That’s a very important vector that the entire tech stack on the drone space is evolving towards.”
The conversation then shifted to cyber attacks in warfare, on which Dr. Alexander Schellong explained how, “Everybody can be a target, individuals or organisations.” Chandrashekar H.G. took the session forward collaboration between India and Germany. Explaining how things have moved forward in this direction, with India’s defence sector expanding with newer initiatives with ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Make In India’. This can be leveraged and used in strengthening relations with other countries through collaboration.
Karl-Heinz Grossmann of Head of International, Airbus Defence & Space also wished for a further strengthening of India-Germany ties. India he explained, at least in the civil market for airplanes, “India is really important for Airbus. We source around almost a Billion euro of parts every year from India. We have some key suppliers.” Stressing the point further he said how, “Without India we cannot do what we do today.”
Elaborating further on the state of warfare today Captain Michael Giss talked about how Europe needs to strengthen its military supplies, technology to combat the growing Russian threat. Ankit Mehta then shed light on Germany and Indian military learnings, saying how “Germany with its old history of building high -performance reliable systems”. An area he said India should imbibe. For Germany, India’s digital growth, and the “work that is happening on intelligence, AI” can be a big lesson. “In terms of exchange between the two countries we are in an environment and a time where anything that is inevitable is getting accelerated at an unprecedented pace”, he succinctly put encapsulating large parts of the theme of the discussion.