Underwater Domain Awareness in Coastal India: Strengthening Security, Sustainability, and Strategic Collaboration | Webinar
കേരള ബജറ്റും പൊതുഗതാഗതാവും | കേരള ബജറ്റ് 2025-26
February 21, 2025
Australia-India Deepening Maritime Cooperation for a Resilient Indo-Pacific | CPPR-AII Colloquium
March 5, 2025Underwater Domain Awareness in Coastal India: Strengthening Security, Sustainability, and Strategic Collaboration | Webinar
| Event Start Date: March 3, 2025 | Event End Date: March 3, 2025 | Event Venue: Zoom / YouTube |
The webinar, “Underwater Domain Awareness in Coastal India: Strengthening Security, Sustainability, and Strategic Collaboration” is being organised by the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) as part of the Indian Coastal Think Tank Network project.
Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA) can be understood as the monitoring and understanding of underwater activities, including resource management, environmental protection, and maritime security. Underwater domain awareness is important for India in protecting its sea lines of communication (SLOCs) and maritime assets from threats like submarines and underwater mines. It also facilitates disaster management by monitoring undersea geophysical operations. With the increasing commercial exploitation of maritime resources, UDA promotes sustainable utilization while balancing economic and environmental concerns. Strengthening UDA through sophisticated technology, research, and collaboration among government, university, and industry is critical to India’s marine security and economic progress.
India has made a set of measures aimed at protecting coastal security, given its longest coastline with a length stretching across 7,500km. It is also strategically located on major international shipping routes. Strengthening Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA) remains a major priority for India, to prevent maritime threats such as illegal trade, smuggling, unauthorized submarine activities, and piracy. The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and the Indian Navy have been actively improving underwater surveillance capabilities through the integration of state-of-the-art technology, including sonar systems, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and machine learning-based operational solutions. The recent incorporation of underwater surveillance intelligence in India, with the support of network acoustic detection and seabed monitoring stations, has led to a significant increase in threat detection and maritime situational awareness. Besides the attempt to create a more secure maritime zone in India, other initiatives, such as those made by the Information Fusion Centre Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) and the “Sagar Kavach” exercise have improved information exchange and international partnerships.
Noting the upswing in submarine activity in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), India has often been keener on the international interplay scene in a bid to strengthen its UDA capabilities. Cooperation with the US through the Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance (ASIA) is focused on jointly creating advanced autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and unmanned surface vessels for deep-sea surveillance. India is also working in close collaboration with the Quad nations to enhance undersea domain awareness, therefore it is safe to say that the security of key sea lanes and infrastructure like submarine cables, underwater energy installations, and others are protected. Along these same lines, as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, India is not only going to develop satellite-based maritime domain awareness systems but also use real-time data analytics to monitor the sea and react to threats more efficiently. That’s why it is important to discuss this, as it digs into the urgent need for new technologies, building alliances at the global level, and constructing a stable Underwater Domain Awareness framework that will guarantee the safety of India’s maritime and economic interests in the Indo-Pacific.
This webinar will focus on the importance of Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA) in ensuring maritime security, environmental sustainability, and economic stability in India’s coastal region.
This webinar is organised as part of CPPR’s project, “Indian Coastal Think Tank Network: Addressing Traditional and Non-traditional Challenges in the Indian Coastal Region from Regional and National Perspectives”.
KEY DISCUSSION POINTS
- Role and Importance of the UDA in the Coastal areas
- Coastal Security and Emerging Maritime Threats
- Technological Advancements in UDA
- India’s Strategic Initiatives for UDA
- Local governments/communities role in the UDA Framework
- International Cooperation and Global Partnerships
SPEAKERS
Vice Admiral M P Muralidharan, AVSM & Bar, NM (Retd)
Vice Admiral M P Muralidharan retired as DG of the Indian Coast Guard in 2013. In a career of close to four decades in the Indian Navy, he has held several key operational and staff appointments including command of three warships, and Maharashtra and Gujarat Naval Area. He was also the Commandant of the Indian Naval Academy and Chief of Personnel of the Navy.
Post retirement, he became a Member of the Armed Forces Tribunal, an appointment equivalent to a High Court Judge. He is a regular writer and speaker on Strategic and Maritime Affairs.
VAdm Muralidharan was awarded the “Ati Vishisht Seva Medal” twice by the President of India and is also a recipient of the “Nao Sena Medal”. He is presently a Distinguished Fellow in Maritime Defence Studies at the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR).
Dr. (Cdr) Arnab Das
Arnab is a researcher, maritime strategist, and entrepreneur. He is the Founder & Director of the Maritime Research Centre (MRC) under the Foundation for Underwater Domain Awareness (FUDA), Pune, which is working on a unique concept of Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA) as its main focus. He also runs his start-up, M/S NirDhwani Technology Pvt Ltd which provides consultancies and services for high-end maritime security solutions and marine conservation support. He advises start-ups on underwater technology solutions and defence strategies. He has over 100 publications, a book, and two book chapters to his credit.
Arnab was commissioned as an electrical officer in 1994. He was deputed to IIT Delhi in 2001 for his Master’s in Underwater Electronics, and subsequently appointed as the Project Officer at IIT Delhi to manage the Navy’s Underwater R&D. He delivered multiple technology transfers, including for the strategic submarine project related to underwater systems and algorithms. He also completed his PhD from IIT Delhi in 2007 in underwater signal processing.
He was invited to Tokyo University in 2014 as a visiting researcher to participate in the design and development of passive acoustic monitoring systems for freshwater dolphins. He was also at the Acoustic Research Laboratory of the Tropical Marine Science Institute at the National University of Singapore in 2015 for a year, post his retirement from the Navy to understand underwater technology development from a global perspective.
MODERATOR
Aleena T Sabu
Aleena is an Research Associate of the International Relations vertical at the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR), Kochi, Kerala, India. She is currently working on the Indian Coastal Think Tank Network project and had previously worked on a paper with Vice Admiral MP Muralidharn on the Global Security Implications of the Bay of Bengal.
Aleena has completed her Master’s in Politics and International Relations from Pondicherry University and Bachelor’s in Political Science (Hons) from Delhi University.