Skilling in India and beyond – A New Perspective Based on the Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA) Framework
Dr. (Cdr.) Arnab Das
Founder and Director, MRC, Pune
Key Highlights
- The UDA framework, not only caters to the requirement of multiple sectors, but also requires highly specialized domain expertise of acoustics
- IMO has taken up the URN management as a high priority agenda and asked India to be the lead nation in the tropical waters of the IOR
- The undersea resources are another major opportunity that deserves far more focus
- MRC has generated significant awareness among the stakeholders and policy makers on the UDA framework and its relevance to the ongoing geopolitical and geo-strategic developments
The global community is increasingly looking at the maritime domain and the oceans for economic growth and climate stability. The maritime commons are de-facto the most preferred trade routes and carry close to 90% of the global trade. Sustainable and efficient transportation thus, becomes one of the priority areas. The undersea resources are another major opportunity that deserves far more focus. These resources vary from both living and non-living, with significant economic and strategic value. The global challenges of food and energy security could be address with higher focus on the ocean resources. Multiple rare earth elements are abundantly available undersea and have significant strategic potential. Access and control of these element are a major cause of conflict among the global powers, often leading to military interventions. Maritime security, thus assumes significance and more and more nations are maintaining their naval presence in the maritime commons.
The freshwater systems are equally important and similar stakes are involved. The sediment management is an important requirement given the heavy siltation in the tropical waters. The effective sediment management is the key requirement for port management, water resource management, navigability of the waterways, flood control & drought relief, sanitation & drainage and more. The freshwater systems in India, particularly in the major Rivers like Brahmaputra, Ganga, Sindhu, Karnaphuli and more, are known habitats for the freshwater Dolphins. These Dolphins are known to be blind and they perceive their environment through sound, referred as Acoustic Vision. The increasing Inland Water Transport is causing severe Acoustic Habitat Degradation for these freshwater Dolphins with critical impact on their population size. Thus, Underwater Radiated Noise (URN), management is an important requirement.
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Dr. (Cdr.) Arnab Das
Founder and Director, MRC, Pune
Dr (Cdr) Arnab Das, Director and Founder of MRC, Pune. Dr Das is a former Naval officer with 2 decades of active services and PhD holder from IIT Delhi with specialization in Underwater Acoustics. He has worked on several projects and has a plethora of publications to his credit.