President calls for integrated approach to security in a challenging global environment

New Delhi, Nov 12: President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday said that in an increasingly connected world when political, social and economic upheavals beyond borders impact the country's security, it was imperative for India to adopt an integrated approach to security.

'There was a time when security and defence were synonymous with the need to maintain a nation’s territorial integrity. That is no longer the case,” he told the faculty and course members of the 58th Course of the National Defence College when they called on him at the Rashtrapati Bhawan here.

'The global environment is challenging and dynamic. The idea of security today incorporates economic and energy security, as well as concerns about cyber-security, health, food, emerging technologies and the environment,' he said.

Calling for an integrated approach to security wherein different agencies of the state, and even the private sector, work in tandem, he said it was a complex task in a democracy like India to bring together different disciplines.

'For better coordination in security sector, political executive and civil services must be conversant with the capabilities and thinking of the defence forces,’’ he said.

'Likewise, military officers need to be sensitised to the Constitutional and administrative framework of the executive,’’ he observed, adding that each must know the strengths and limits of the other.

'All of these are elements in the creation of a coordinated national security approach,’’ he emphasised.