Why in the news?

  • Indian Defence Minister urges armed forces to be ready for unconventional threats while addressing the Combined Commanders’ Conference, 2025 in Kolkata.

Unconventional Threats to Indian Security

  • What are Unconventional Threats?: Unconventional threats are non-traditional, transnational, and often civilian-centric challenges like cyberattacks, pandemics, and climate change that directly affect national stability and sovereignty.
  • Major Unconventional Threats:
    • Cybersecurity Threats:
      • Data breaches, ransomware, and attacks on critical infrastructure.
      • India is among the top global targets for cyberattacks.
    • Disinformation & Information Warfare:
      • Manipulation of social media to spread communal tensions, fake news, and influence elections.
    • Biological & Pandemic Risks:
      • Covid-19 revealed gaps in preparedness.
      • Concerns over dual-use biotechnology and bio-terrorism.
    • Climate Change & Environmental Stress:
      • Extreme weather, floods, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), desertification, and sea-level rise.
      • Triggers migration, resource conflicts, and disaster-management stress.
    • Economic & Resource Security:
      • Dependence on critical minerals, medical imports, and energy supplies exposes India to coercion.
    • Hybrid & Grey-zone Warfare:
      • Proxy actors, sabotage of infrastructure, cross-border terrorism below conventional war threshold.
    • Maritime & Resource Challenges:
      • Illegal fishing, seabed resource competition (e.g., polymetallic nodules), piracy.
  • Government Response:
    • Cyber: CERT-In, National Cyber Security Policy.
    • Biosecurity: National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) guidelines; Indo-US biosecurity dialogue.
    • Climate: National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), disaster risk reduction strategies.
    • International Cooperation: Participation in QUAD, G20, UN for cyber, climate, and health norms.
  • Challenges:
    • Weak attribution in cyber/bio threats.
    • Institutional fragmentation & lack of coordination.
    • Resource and skilled manpower shortage.
    • Disinformation spreads faster than regulatory checks.
  • Way Forward:
    • Establish integrated threat response cells for cyber, bio, and climate risks.
    • Strengthen critical infrastructure resilience and cyber workforce.
    • Create a comprehensive national biosecurity framework.
    • Mainstream climate-security linkages into defence and planning.
    • Build public awareness against misinformation; promote media literacy.
    • Diversify supply chains and secure critical minerals.
    • Lead in global norm-setting on cyber, AI, and biosecurity.