Symposium of 100 years of tank
Asymposium on ‘100 Years of the Tank’ was organised by South Asia Defence & Strategic Review on May 2, 2016, at Kothari Auditorium, DRDO Bhawan, in New Delhi on the occasion of the Armoured Corps Day. Various important serving military and civilian dignitaries apart from serving officers and veterans from the Armoured Corps attended the same.
The opening address was delivered by Lt General Ajai Singh, the former Governor of Assam. Other important addresses included address on ‘Future Battle Space – Fostering Combined Arms Effect’ by Lt General Subrata Saha, Deputy Chief of Army Staff (P&S), ‘A Dominant Multi-Spectrum Force of Decision’ by Lt General A.B. Shivane, Director General Mechanised Forces, ‘Armour—The Way Forward’ by Lt General A.K. Singh, the Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar and Puducherry.
The second session was chaired by Lt General Philip Campose, former Vice Chief of the Army on ‘Glorious Past, Dominating Present and Challenging Future’. A panel discussion was also held on ‘Leadership Challenges in Combat in Modern Day Mechanised Battlespace’ chaired by Lt General Amit Sharma, Commander in Chief, Strategic Forces Command which also included talk by Colonel Efraim Defrin of the Israel Army on ‘Major Tank Battles post WW-II and Takeaways.’
The final session on ‘Tanks in Future Battlespace’ was chaired by Lt General Anil Chait (Retd), former CISC and commenced with the address by Lt General K.J. Singh, Western Army Commander on the ‘Envisaged Role of Tanks in the Indian Context in Contemporary Battlespace’. Lt General K.J. Singh also chaired the panel discussion on ‘Touch Stones for Future Ready Mechanised Forces’, which also included talk on ‘Armoured Vehicles for the Future Battlespace – Role and Employment’ by Brigadier James Carr Smith, Deputy Commander of the United Kingdom’s 1 Division.