National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval on Thursday said that deliberate weaponisation of dangerous pathogens is a serious concern while climate change is another threat.
Doval was speaking on 'National security preparedness in the age of disasters and pandemics', at the Pune Dialogue on National Security (PDNS) 2021 organised by Pune International Centre.
At the event, Doval said, "The deliberate weaponization of dangerous pathogens is a serious concern. This has heightened the need to build comprehensive national capabilities and bio-defence, bio-safety and bio-security."
"Climate change in another threat multiplied with consequences. It impacts the availability of resources which has increasingly become scarce and has become a source of conflict and competition. Climate change can accelerate instability and cause massive population displacements. In 2013, nearly 600 million people in India were expected to live in urban areas. Migration from low lying coastal areas in South Asia due to climate change can add to the already stressed urban areas. All these will pose problems in internal security management. In such an evolving national security environment, there is a need to reinvent and redevelop ourselves," NSA Doval said.
Highlighting the changes taking place in global security landscape, Doval said, "You are all aware of the changes taking place in the global security landscape. Wars are increasingly becoming cost ineffective instruments of achieving the nation's political and military objectives."
"The new areas of warfare have shifted from merely territorial frontiers to the civil societies. The common people's thinking, their perception, health, sense of well-being and their perception of their government have assumed new importance," he added.
National Security Advisor also said that the COVID-19 pandemic and devastating natural disasters have the potential to impact the collective psyche of people, their economic well-being and instil fears about their survival.
"It generates social imbalances that can threaten political stability, economic growth and even the capacity of a nation to resolutely meet its external and internal threats," he said.
Doval also said that this ongoing pandemic has further reinforced the need to predict threats.
"COVID-19 has brought science and economic data to the centre of national security. National Institute of Virology (NIV), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Serum Institute of India (SII) etc have all contributed to meeting the challenges created by the pandemic. The pandemic has further reinforced the need to predict threats," he said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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