First joint commands to be launched by May
India gets ready to roll out long-awaited theaterisation plan with Air Defence and Maritime commands
NEW DELHI: India is set to begin a formal roll-out of its longawaited theaterisation plan to best utilise its military’s resources amid growing security threats, with the Air Defence Command and the Maritime Theatre Command set to be launched by May, people familiar with the developments said on Tuesday.
The commands are being set up in the backdrop of border tensions with China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and Pakistani hostility along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir, with a joint threat from the two nuclear-armed neighbours being acknowledged as a reality by the country’s military leadership, and at a time when India is demonstrating a muscular stance in the Indo-Pacific region.
“The final validation exercises to set up the two commands are in full swing. Aspects related to executing authority, command and control structures and budgeting are being fine-tuned,” said a senior official, one of the people cited above, who asked not to be named.
The Air Defence Command, which will come up in Prayagraj (Allahabad), will be the first to
be set up in April. It will control the air defence resources of all the three services, and will be tasked with protecting military assets from airborne enemies. Its commander-in-chief will be a top three-star Indian Air Force officer. The Maritime Theatre Command, to be headquartered in Karwar on the west coast, will come up the following month and be responsible for securing India from seaborne threats and will have army and air force elements under it. Its commanderin-chief will be a top three-star
Indian Navy officer.
Theaterisation refers to placing specific units of the army, the navy and the air force under a theatre commander. Such commands are led by an officer from any of the three services, depending on the roles assigned to them.
“The Air Defence Command will be rolled out first, in April. The Maritime Theatre Command will follow a month later. The commanders-in-chief of the commands will report to the chief of defence staff (CDS) in his
role as permanent chairman of the chiefs of staff committee (COSC),” said a second official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Importance of jointmanship
India’s CDS General Bipin Rawat wears three hats — he is the permanent chairman of COSC, heads the department of military affairs (DMA), and is the singlepoint military adviser to the defence minister.
The government expects Rawat, who took charge as India’s first CDS on January 1, 2020, to bring about jointness among the three services in a three-year time frame (by January 2023). One of the means to achieve jointness is the setting up of integrated theatre commands for the best use of military resources to fight future battles.
Apart from the Air Defence and Maritime Theatre Commands, India is expected to have three other integrated commands to secure its western, northern and eastern fronts — these will be rolled out by December 2022, and several studies are currently on to finalise the structures of these commands. In addition, a logistics command is in the works to avoid duplication of efforts and resources. The CDS’s mandate includes bringing about jointness in operations, logistics, transport, training, support services and repairs and maintenance of the three services. The long-overdue integrated theatres will transform the Indian military from a military force to a military power, contributing to India’s stature as a global leader, said Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia (retd), who was heading the Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (CENJOWS) until last month and has worked extensively on aspects related to jointness. “On account of China’s aggressive behaviour along the LAC and the Covid-19 pandemic, the armed forces will be tasked, asked and expected to do more with less (resources). Hence, it is imperative that the armed forces roll out the integrated theatre commands fast,” said Bhatia, also a former director general of military operations. The Air Defence Command will bring about the muchneeded synergy between air assets of the three services, with their optimal application providing seamless air defence cover, which will be critical to counter the Chinese threat, experts said. “While the aerospace domain is critical for deterrence, the maritime theatre too needs integration at the earliest as our locational/geographical advantages can deter China’s aggressiveness (in the Indian Ocean region). Synergy in application of combat power is essential in new age warfare, which is multi domain and waged in many key battle spaces simultaneously,” said Bhatia. India has finally demonstrated politico-military will to address the much-needed theaterisation, he said.
NEW DELHI: Consumers snapped up soaps, hair grooming oil, packaged foods and domestic cleaners in the December quarter as they emerged from the worst of the pandemic, a report by market researcher Nielsen said, driving up the value of fastmoving consumer goods (FMCG) sales by 7.3% from a year ago.
The recovering economy, festive buying and rural revival boosted volumes—across traditional channels and modern trade—by 5% in the period, the Q4 FMCG Snapshot by NielsenIQ’s retail intelligence team said on Tuesday. This is the highest volume and value growth reported by the FMCG sector in 2020. FMCG grew steadily for four months, Nielsen said, with value growth rising from 2.7% in September to 9.1% in December. For the whole of 2020, however, value growth declined 2%, in line with its earlier projections for the full year. The researcher had projected FMCG sales to shrink between -1% and -3% in 2020, led by the sharp sales contraction in the June quarter. Nielsen executives remain hopeful of a positive growth trajectory this year but declined to share projections citing local and global uncertainty around the virus.
“We are witnessing a fourmonth consecutive growth, and it started from back in September; then in November, when the festive season really picked up, we saw a 9% growth; the best part is that in December, this growth sustained,” said Diptanshu Ray, lead, retail intelligence, India, Nielsen IQ.
As consumers stepped out to shop, India’s large cities with over a million people entered the positive growth territory, report
ing a 0.8% growth in sales value in the December quarter, after two quarters of decline, Nielsen said. Meanwhile, rural markets raced ahead as sales value rose 14.2% from a year ago. “This sharper recovery is on the back of favourable agricultural sector performance, government action towards rural employment generation, and as rural India had a lesser impact of the pandemic,” Nielsen said.
Cities were more severely impacted by the pandemic, said Sameer Shukla, executive director, retail intelligence, leading to a sluggish recovery.
However, the shift from loose to packaged products in rural markets could help these markets grow ahead of urban in the near-term. Large manufacturers, said Nielsen, bounced back with volume-led growth, while smaller companies reported price-led growth and higher volumes.
India’s top packaged consumer goods company Hindustan Unilever Ltd said demand was moving in the right direction after announcing its thirdquarter earnings last month.
“I’m pleased with the trajectory in which the business is moving, the direction in which the markets are moving. Even before the pandemic, in the 2019 December quarter, markets had slowed significantly. The biggest stress those days was rural markets. Rural has seen a pretty good comeback, and over the last couple of quarters, we see rural to be pretty resilient. The urban markets, which took a big toll because of mobility reasons, are coming back to growth, albeit still at a very low level,” Sanjiv Mehta, chairman and managing director, HUL, said in a January 29 interview.
Within FMCG, Nielsen said hygiene and immunity products have found strong salience among consumers and reported a 46% value growth from a year ago, including a 34% volume growth in the quarter. “The home and personal care basket made a consumption-led recovery (5% volume growth versus year ago), while food categories saw a 10% growth riding on boost in consumption as well as a price hike in some food baskets,” Nielsen said.