 Good morning to all the dignitaries, guests and students with great joy and immense pleasure. This is Kashi Shkornj, a second year student of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering Department. I feel privileged to extend my warm welcome to all present over here for the inaugural ceremony of Votes 2023. Now, I would like to introduce Arushka Jan, the Secretary of Team Oceana. Rajiv Sharma, the H.A.D. of the Department. Admiral Karanbeer Singh, P.V.S.M., A.V.S.M., A.D.C. and the former Flag Officer of Indian Navy, Professor Kamakoti, the Director I.P. Madras, and Mr. Mamlu, the Secretary of Team Oceana. I request the audience to rise up for the invocation song. Thank you. What a patriotic song. Thank you. Thank you. What a patriotic start. I take immense pleasure in welcoming you all to Waves, the annual department first of Ocean Engineering. After the long pandemic period, we are back with a new edition of Waves. But before Waves emerged as the biggest student in Ocean Engineering first, there is no expected picture that meets the eye. Waves started out as the annual technical cultural festival of the Department of Ocean Engineering in 1999. Having been in dynamic and engaging space, we have held a lot of interesting events, workshops and lecture series, and also to help perform exciting cultural events backbiting its peak. After five years, we are proud to re-initiate Waves, bringing to you Waves 2020 Nautical Lexus. Can you have a big round of applause? We are thrilled to announce the presence of Admiral Karanbeer Singh, A.V.S.M., A.V.S.M., A.D.C. and the former Flag Officer of Indian Navy, who has joined us for the event adding an extraordinary of magnificence with autism. Admiral Karanbeer Singh is a former Flag Officer who was the 24th Chief of the Naval Staff of Indian Navy. Prior to his ascension, Admiral Singh served as the Vice Chief of Naval Staff and Flag Officer Commanding Chief, Eastern Naval Command. He is named for his mysterious service and leadership skills. But what sets him apart is his reputation as a great eagle. At home, he used to describe senior officers who possess exceptional strategic and practical acumen. He also served as the chairmanship of National Maritime Foundation, New Delhi, in January 2022. He is an alumnus of L.D.A., Karak Rasla, the different service staff college, Wellington, and College of Naval Worker, Mumbai. He was commissioned into the Indian Navy in July 1980. As a naval editor, he always wins in 1981 as a helicopter pilot. He was also the director general of the Prajak Sea Bay, which is the third largest naval base in India. Until the 3rd March, 2019, he was named the Seniors of Indian Navy, and this is the first time a helicopter pilot has become the Chief of Naval Staff. Through his career, he has demonstrated exceptional leadership skills and a deep commitment to the Navy's gold values. During 39 years of his service, he has received several awards, which include Taranbishi Sera Nagi and Ati Bishi Sera Nagi. He has also received the Appoachal Vijay Nagi and Appoachal Parakram Nagi for his excellent service during the Cargill War in 1999 and 2001-2002 Pakistan in the stand-up. We are honored and equally excited to have you here with us today. Now I request Professor Kamakoti to hand over the bookie to our Chief guest. We are glad to invite our beloved director, Professor Kamakoti, our inspiration and the one who ignites our motivation with his constant support. Now I request Professor Rajiv Sharma, HOD to hand over the bookie to Professor Kamakoti. Where there is a will, let there be light. Let us start base with the auspicious lighting of the lamp. I request our Chief guest to light the lamp and share with us their blessings. Next up we have with us our very own HOD, Professor Rajiv Sharma, the man behind waves and ocean. I request him to share a few words about waves and department to the audience. It is my honor and pleasure to welcome you all to the tour of the department of ocean waves. It has been done after the pandemic, the first time of the three years we are back to the offline mode. It is a festival organized by the students for the students community. And in the department and similarly the institute, we believe in giving absolute freedom to our students. We believe, we strongly believe that we exist in this institute because we have students here. If you don't have students, you will not exist here. So we allow them to grow, grow as indigenous, grow as leaders, grow as heroes. And we are proud to state that IIT Madras believes in making heroes, making students successful and growing in different dimensions of life. It is important for you that apart from academics, you learn about the field, how the field is applied to solving problems of next term, in the next term to state level and contributes from your side whatever little you can in the development of the society, development of the nation and your overall application. So pursue happiness, pursue your dreams, be happy in whatever you are doing develop your skills, be it technical, be it managerial, be it leadership and believe us, we will support you in every endeavor of your life. I wish you all the best and I wish this control and technical even the great success. Thank you, thank you all. Thank you so much sir. Now I request our beloved director, Professor V. Kamakoti to address the gathering. So very, very good morning to all of you. Very happy that waves is happening after four years of excite and I am sure this is going to be a very technically rewarding. I don't just want to call it as an event, I think it's now become a festival. This is how Madhigraha started with a very humble beginning of, I remember some director mentioned it was around 3,000 rupees budget and today Saran's budget crosses two crores. And many department festivals also just started as a simple small event but what is very constant at IIT Madras is growth and we have seen massive growth and I am sure today this particular department annual fest is now becoming a sort of a very technically strong symposium and also something that you all get together and exchange ideas. I am very happy to have Admiral here. Sir, as we are progressing towards the 2047, we have 25 more years we need to establish supremacy in technology and one of the important ingredients that other than all the technology and innovation is patriotism, your presence I am sure sir is going to instill lot more of patriotic feeling for all of us here. Thank you very much for coming today sir. Friends, India is a, what is unique about our country we have a ocean named after our country, the Indian Ocean. I don't think any other country has an ocean named after them. We have so much of coast available and I must also proudly say I used to tell all your faculty and the HOD that the Indian Ocean can also be renamed as Indian Institute of Technology Madras Ocean because almost all the ports that are there from right from the northeast side all the way to Gujarat around the garland for India I think all the ports we do are doing some at least minimum 3 or 4 projects for each one of them. I think that is the exposure that your department has with the ocean I think you should be very proud of it and you should also be very thankful to God that you did get a seat in ocean engineering at IIT Madras. I hope you all agree with me now. In addition, we have very interesting projects that are of national importance. Number one is that we need to work on offshore energy development specifically offshore windmills. I think that is going to be extremely important and that involves massive structures and massive electrical engineering also because one thing is to generate that energy, another is to evacuate that energy. Similarly, on the ocean side, we are also looking for sea launch of rockets. Rocket is becoming extremely important. Low-air target rockets are crucial for countries' economic development and I am sure that also we have a major role to play. And then of course we need to build our own submarines not just for defense but also suppose today I want to lay an underwater cable from India to even as close as Te Sri Lanka or even India to our own island, Khandaman. I think we are hiring and that costs us several crores of rupees. I think we need to have our own submarines. We need to have our own ships. I am sure we are taking large steps in this direction and I am sure these type of symposiums, the technical exposure that you will get here the collective ideas that you get here I am sure we will surely be in a position to develop these technologies. We have already Agni Kool who is ready to send rockets at low-air targets and the sea launch facility from Ocean Engineering will complete the cycle and I am sure that at least some 10 to 20 start-ups will come in the next 5 to 6 years from IIT Madras and those start-ups will define what we are in the country in terms of technology 25 years from the line. With all these good wishes and good intentions and good vision I congratulate the organizers for putting this wonderful program. I am sure this is going to be technically rewarding. Now we have a very big challenge of bringing all of us together to meet at a common place, socialize. I think this will also serve that purpose. Thank you very much for inviting me and again Admiral Sahab. Thank you very, very much for coming here and I am sure your presence will inspire all of us much more. Thank you. Thank you for gracing our event with your presence. I would like to humbly request the steam chief guest, Admiral Karam Veer Singh to kindly address the audience. Good morning everybody. Can you hear me? Professor Kamukoti, director IIT Mumbai, the head of department and the faculty of the department of ocean engineering and most importantly all of you, the brilliant students of IIT Madras. Good morning to all of you and I am extremely delighted and honored to get this opportunity to share some of my thoughts with you. I thought, I will briefly touch on two issues today. One is that, you know, why the importance of the oceans for the country's prosperity and security. That is one. And second, how STEM or science, technology, engineering and mathematics can help our country achieve this goal of prosperity and security in the maritime domain. You know, I was browsing through the waves of 2023 merchandise and I saw this t-shirt with a caption in front of it which read Thelesophile. I printed on it. I was very pleasantly surprised because Thelesophile means the lover of the seas. And most people in this country are not aware or the seldom recognize the ancient Thelesocracies that we had in this country. And you are aware that Thelesocracy means a maritime kingdom or empire. You had the Cholas, you had the Kalingas who led this country to prosperity in the ancient times. You know, we had our ancient Indians had deep linkage with the sea. They wrote hymns in praise of Lord Varuna, the God of the oceans or Lord of the oceans and verses in, you know, dedicated to Goddess Aditi who invoking her benediction for safe sea journeys. Are you all aware of the Lothal dry dock which is 4,500 years back. It is a tremendous maritime infrastructure in Lothal and today the government of today is building a museum there, a maritime museum. And I think it will be worth a visit by everybody. The Indian Navy is also involved in one of the stalls or one of the exhibits there. So maritime trade was a predominant characteristic of ancient India. And that led to our prosperity. At this stage, 25% of world GDP was generated in India. Not only that, we had cultural linkages, ideological linkages, religious linkages because of this trade through the seas. I went to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Have you heard of it? Yeah, so there, went and saw the temple there and such an accurate depiction of Mahabharat, sorry, Ramayana. And another thing that I was quite surprised when I went to South Korea in one of the provinces, nearly 15% or 20% of the Koreans owed their ancestry to India because the princes of Ayodhya, she went and married one of the princes in South Korea. So there was so much of interaction through the seas. And of course we sadly also know that we lost our independence because we became weak at sea. And thereafter, you know, East India Company came in, various European parts came in, and we lost our independence. So this was the aim of just sort of bringing history to you to tell you that there is a lot of linkage between the oceans and our prosperity. Today when we look at it and I'll write off certain statistics, seas have become even more important to us. Your director also mentioned to you the number of the large coastline. Today we've recalculated the coastline. We've been saying 7,500. Now it is nearly 11,000. And we do it more accurately through satellites, et cetera. You've got a very large number of major and non-major ports, 13 major ports and 205 non-major ports, 1,200 islands and islets on both sides, the Lackatives and the Andamans. You know, have you heard of the exclusive economic zone? That's the zone about 200 nautical miles into the sea where the entire water column and the seabed is yours, is the economically yours. So that is nearly two-third of our land mass. And when we add continental shelf, 1.2 million square kilometers, you'll actually have the sea area equal to the land mass of India. And that is actually the economic map of India. We are so used to seeing this peninsula, but actually that is our land. And I think as we start seeing what kind of resources are there, you know, if you look at the seabed, there are the polymetallic nodules which have cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese and large numbers, 380 million tons of polymetallic nodules on the seabed. And the director was saying that when seabed, not only for laying cables, for seabed exploration, you will require deep submersibles and ability to grab the nodules and bring them up. So that is the kind of importance that the seas... And you know, nickel, we are almost entirely importing. And it's got tremendous applications, as you know, in science. Of course, as the director pointed out, the offshore wind energy potential is extremely high. 127 gigawatts. And you know, our entire projected requirement is 205 gigawatts for our country. So that's the kind of immensity. So what does all this data mean to us? It means that the well-being and security of our country is inextricably linked to the seas. That is my first point. And if you want to become a 5 trillion economy by 2025 and go beyond that, we will have to do this through the seas, whether it's markets, resources, or the energy to drive this economy. It will all have to come from the seas. The second point I just wanted to talk about was about STEM. And I want to tell you that we will be able to use the seas to our advantage only and only if we have a strong scientific base that underpins our maritime endeavors. And I've seen the websites of the Department of Ocean Engineering and I was very interested in going through the maritime autonomous systems, the National Technology Center for Ports, Waterways and Coasts. So a lot of good work is going on by the Department of Ocean Engineering. I think last month we had a meeting with the industry. And that is, I think, the way to collaborate. It is actually a triangle of the academia, the industry, and the armed forces when you look at the defense ecosystem. And academia is very important. If it linkages are made correctly, you can do wonders. As a former naval chief and a practitioner, I thought I'd offer some views on the inputs that STEM, how STEM can be used to leverage our maritime prowess or maritime security. First, it's important, though, China is our pacing challenge, but it's important to see where they've done things right. And one place where they've done things extremely well is in the civil military fusion aspect. And, you know, they have this civil...MCF, military civil fusion strategy. It has got some six interrelated efforts. But I think one is important for all of us. And I'll mention that it is integrating and leveraging science and technology innovations across military and civilian sectors. This is extremely important. We had started off well after independence. India, our forebearers, visionary leaders had realized the importance of this civil and military interface. We set up the DRDO in 1958. Department of Ocean Engineering was set up half a century ago in 1977. But I still feel we have a long way to go if you have to catch up with the countries like China and the U.S. And, of course, a lot of effort is being made through Atma Nirbharta. The government's focus on Atma Nirbharta is the start-up of India, which has fostered the Defense India start-up challenge series, focus on self-reliance, innovation. They're all re-energizing defense R&D. And I've got... We started, you know, as far as the Navy is concerned, we started pretty early. We started in around 19... late 1950s, 1960s and we started making our own indigenous ships. We made our first ship in 1961 or thereabouts. That's the time when the ambassador car was being made in India. So, and thereafter we got a directorate of indigenization and in 2020, we got this Naval Innovation and Indigenous Organization or NIIO in short, this is in 2020. Why did we do this? Because for navies, technology is absolutely critical. It makes a difference to us between victory and defeat at sea. And we have been therefore very proactive in pushing for new technologies through indigenization, innovation which will enable us to perform our role much better. So, I... I just thought I just flashed some of the road map, the Naval Science and Technology Roadmap. This is what we are looking at. Perhaps in your own time, you can have a look at what all is of interest to the Navy. It covers nearly everything that you can think of and also, these are the focus areas on how the Navy wishes to employ technology for its operations. So, this is just a quick rundown. You can later on take a look at it in your own time. So, if I was to look at a future Navy or I have been looking at the future Navy in my previous job, I would look at it as a highly networked Navy, network-centric Navy. Everything is built around this large network where all platforms are linked together, whether they are airborne in the air or on the surface of the seas or underwater. We look at containerized solutions wherein packages of say, mine sweeping etc. are put in a container and can be shifted from platform to platform. A lot of effort has to go into stealth technology, composites, unmanned UAVs, USVs, UUVs and I understand you have an exhibition on this which will perform patrols, pollution control, mine clearance, explosive disposal, logistics, etc. The future Navy will have long-range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms like the high-altitude, long-endurance UAVs, high-altitude pseudo-satellites which will have over the horizon long-range data-linked ordnance and vectors, cognitive long-range communications, immersive simulators, blended fleets that leverage AI networks, etc. and of course a whole host of satellites. To bring this to the notice of everybody concerned the Navy had last year hosted a seminar and NIO I've got the head of NIO Commodore Goliath to just stand up and he's come here. He heads the Navy's indigenization and innovation organization and I think you'll have a lot to discuss with him. So we had a seminar called Swaava Lambun or Self-Reliance and we had the seventh series of the Defense India Startup Challenge which aimed at developing at least 75 indigenous technologies and products and the spectrum is wide from AI, autonomous unmanned systems and IT. So this is what I wanted to share with you today in this limited time. I would like to conclude by saying that 21st century is going to be the centuries of the sea. A century of the seas. On the one hand we'll be looking at ideas to mitigate climate change sea level rise, a lot of infrastructure climate change resistant ocean warming etc. On the other hand we'll be looking at sustainable use of the seas for food, mineral resources energy and trade or the larger blue economy and of course this is a golden opportunity to make India a potent maritime power through intelligent use of technology. All these areas the Department of Ocean Engineering will play a crucial role. So the institute's enduring motto of Siddhir Bhavati Karmaja, urges all of us towards action because success is only attained through action and it is my earnest hope that the past, present and future alumni of IIT and the Department of Ocean Engineering will lead the country's scientific endeavour in preserving and promoting the nation's maritime interest. Thank you so much Jai Hind. Thank you so. It was really a motivating and enlightening speech. I'm sure waves will reach great heights with your blessings. Now I request our director to hand over a little token of love, a memento to admiral Karambir Singh on behalf of our institute and team of Siddhir Bhavati Karmaja. Today we have Commodore A.P. Golea with us. I request Professor Kamakoti to hand over a memento to him. Now a short video shall be played on behalf of our beloved sponsor the Royal Institution of Naval Architects London UK where they have shared their support and encouragement through the CEO Mr. Chris Boyd. My name is Chris Boyd from the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. I am a naval architect engineer and systems integrator so I feel at home here today with the Oceana team, students alumni and distinguished guests. It's an absolute honour for the Royal Institution of Naval Architects to support Wavex 2023 the annual flagship festival of the department of ocean engineering at IIT Madras. I understand it's the largest in IITM's history. So I look forward to celebrating excellence and innovation in naval architecture, ocean engineering and maritime with you. Moreover, I would like to really commend Oceana the official student body of the department of ocean engineering at IIT Madras for your hard work, enthusiasm and energy. You really are an inspiration to us all. Your ethos and vibrancy brings together like-minded individuals teamwork and collaboration enterprise and importantly friendship which is something I've cherished throughout my own naval architecture ocean engineering and maritime journey. So whilst we celebrate the festival and awards I thank you for delivering such a wonderful event for us all to enjoy. I must provide a special mention for distinguished guests and acknowledge their support contribution and enthusiasm without them this event would not be able to take place. So firstly to the IITM director Professor V. Kamakoti the Dean of Students Professor Nilesh Jay Baza the head of the department Professor S. Nalaiyusu our honourable guest Admiral Karimba Singh his chief of naval staff and flag officer Indian Navy retired chairman of the National Maritime Foundation Professor Krishnam Kutty and the Vice President India for the Royal Institution Naval Architects, Professor Krishnam Kutty. My personal thanks to Mr. V. Bharath Mohan and Mr. Shridra Oceana for working closely with my team. Not only have you organised such a celebration festival for fellow students in the maritime community but you've also found time to continue your studies. How you have managed this I really do not know so well done. My personal thanks as well to Mr. Ashok Kumar who's a PhD fellow researcher who's associate member of the Royal Institution Naval Architects at the Marine Hydrodynamics and Simulation and Laboratory as ever your support is tremendous. It's very important that I provide a special mention to the main sponsors as their support and contribution really does allow the conference to thrive. So firstly to invent ocean with their USPs, do it right the first time, think outside the box and automate is something for the students to consider and also to ITSEM for your commitment, reliability and quality to offshore marine structures is an inspiration to all the students attending at this festival. The Royal Institution Naval Architects was founded in 1860 and it really was founded to promote the art and science of ship designer construction. Today we're an international professional organization whose 10,000 members are involved at all levels in the design construction, repair and management and marine vessels and structures in over 90 countries. We have 36 centres of knowledge we cover the globe in six regions and we have international links and it's my absolute honour that Vice President of India is Professor Krishnan Kutty. So as I sign off with a very short video just showing you what RENA does enjoy the festival and celebrations and from the Royal Institution Naval Architects thank you for inviting us. The Royal Institution Naval Architects was established in 1860 so RENA has evolved with the times over its 160 years to be at the forefront of innovation, destructors and enablers whether it's the design, construction, operation or maintenance of marine vessels that's what we do. The Royal Institution is the governing body for technical excellence and prowess within naval architecture and maritime engineering. RENA is at the forefront of learning and education. We look at the continual professional development all our members and all our engineers. Sustainability within RENA is the big question. Decarbonization, net zero. The Royal Institution is changing. We are modernizing the way we look and communicating with members. So this is my call to arms as Chief Executive please come and join the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. My name is Chris Boyd. I'm the Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Institution Naval Architects. I am... Thank you Mr. Boyd and Team RENA. Finally, the wait is over. We bring to you the first session of our Blue Horizon series an inspiring Fireside Chat with our Chief Guest Admiral Karam Bir Singh. I request our director HOD and Secretary Navneet to occupy the front rows. I invite Arushka Jan the Secretary of Team Oceana and the Moderator of this session to proceed with the same. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. It's distinguished Navy officers Admiral Karam Bir Singh. He has been the CNS of the Indian Navy and he has had an illustrious career spanning over four decades during which he has held various key positions and he has demonstrated excellent leadership skills and a deep commitment to the Navy's war values. He's also a recipient of several awards and decorations including the Param Vicious Sevah Medal and Ati Vicious Sevah Medal. He has also received the Operation Vijay Medal and Operation Parakram Medal for his excellent service during the Kargil war in 99 and Pakistan India standoff in 2001. My name is Arushka Jain and I'm the Secretary of Team Oceana of the Ocean Engineering Department at IIT Madras and today I'm honored to have the opportunity to moderate this session with Admiral Sir and learn more about his experiences in his Navy career. Admiral Sir, thank you for joining us today. To get started I would like to know how you got inspired to join the Navy. Can you share us a bit about your experiences and what has been your favorite moment in your career? Thank you so much. I do want to listen to a very boring story. How often joined? My father was in the Indian Air Force so watching him in uniform like this people in NCC uniforms looking very smart so that of course got me started looking at somebody. We lived a life which was simple pursuit of knowledge you know in the armed forces life is simple everybody stays in the same kind of houses everybody pays the same basically your friendship etc the quality of life is different there is no disparity in terms of financial it's all good life which I love the life thought my father looked very handsome and smart in uniform and I always had this desire to fly because one of my neighbors I remember there was a bomber called Canberra in 1971 war was going on and I would often go with my son he was a pilot go inside there and then act as if you are flying so that whole ambition was there that you must fly the original plan was to join the Indian Air Force but when I went to I had seen the sea earlier when I went for my entrance exam to National Defense Academy I actually went to Mumbai and then saw the sea and got really fascinated by the sea when I spoke to my father he said why don't you pick the best of both worlds go and join the Navy and fly from the I had a very fruitful career enjoyable career didn't realize how 41 and a half years of life passed me by in fact I joined when I was 16 and retired when I was 61 and a half so my entire life has been about flying about being at sea and I just went by in a jiffy so if you enjoy what you are doing life is a breeze and as you said that actually describes you it's impressive to see how the Indian Navy has modernized its conception in 90 Navy could you share what have been some of the key developments according to you which has been particularly impactful for the Navy yeah so Navy is like I mentioned you it's technologically very sort of centered and when we joined I joined it in 1979 and since then so many things have changed technologically if you look at say propulsion the propulsion of our ships then warships were primarily steam and diesel then we got the gas turbines coming in nuclear propulsion coming in and IFEP the integrated full electric propulsion coming in they combined diesel and gas combined diesel gas and electric propulsion really showed so much of change over a period of time when you talk of weapons weapons were mainly very rudimentary weapons in the Navy they were done we then moved to the missile age we had surface to surface missile surface to air missile went ahead now when we are looking at things like directed energy weapons the whole thing has completely changed over a period of time when you look at electronics that will be the fastest thing we started with you know wall based equipment went to solid state now we are talking of we are already in software defined and then we are going to cognitive radios for instance when you look at material or steel we used to have steel which was imported then our DMRL the research laboratory material research laboratory and NMRL they came up with different steels today India proudly builds its own steel the grant which was commissioned last year is built by Indian steel and our submarines nuclear submarines all of them are being built by Indian steel we then moved on to composites composites extremely important for us because they are lightweight especially to reduce the top weight of the ships so technologically they have moved generation because we are not even talking about cyberspace and whole lot of other issues that have completely permeated the Indian Navy and when you look at the manpower or the personnel who are in the Navy initially our officers were matriculate our sailors were also matriculate or even below below that they were 8 standard parts today every naval officer is a BTEC it is a conscious decision taken by the Navy every sailor of ours is either N plus 2 or diploma holder so things have changed women have joined that's been a big change Navy has like all of the organizations has changed and improved over the decades that have that was very impressive to hear about the advancements made by the Navy so the COVID-19 pandemic has affected so many industries and organizations I am interested to know how the pandemic affected the Navy and how did you and your team adjust to these situations COVID the Black Swan even it took us all by surprise everybody and we were grappling with the COVID ships, submarines there are 40 people in very close proximity of each other so ships are all centrally air conditioned everybody stays on board so it was a big problem for us to manage to control this particular pandemic and to contain this pandemic within the Navy just when we were grappling with COVID China's the Galwan happened and it put a lot of pressure on us operationally also so what we realized is that two ways human beings or organizations can react to a kind of an emergency one is to start looking inwards and trying to put our own house in order or to start looking out so as a Navy we decided we will look outwards this is what the nation expects of us and the region expects of us so as part of the nation was concerned wherever we could help out setting up hospitals, repairing oxygen generators wherever we could help out technically we helped out Komodo Golayas here he and his team did a fantastic work I think we patented what are that PPE as was one of the first PPEs to be recognized so the Navy had made that so inwardly we started doing this but our country we also decided that we will control this pandemic on ship but we will get all our people who are stuck there were poor people stuck in Iran Sri Lanka Maldives we picked up all of them on our ships and brought them whilst of course a large amount was being done by Air India and things like that but we also decided to do that we didn't stop only for the country we decided to look after the region so we started something called the Samudra Setu Saga series wherein we delivered you know vaccines medical teams to various island nations like the Maldives Mauritius, Seychelles Madagascar Mozambique also that is the kind of effort that we did we tried to convert this adversity into an opportunity to help out the country the nation and the region we have seen photographs of our ships bringing those huge oxygen the cylinders, massive cylinders which were coming because they couldn't be taken brought by air when we needed it in the second wave we brought a lot of them and when our neighbors required them we transferred to them so I think COVID was a pretty avoidable experience but we tried to make the best of it and the Navy learned a lot and we were able to you know contribute to the nation's effort for the audience Admiral Sir was named the CNS in 2019 and this is the first time that a helicopter pilot was named the CNS of the Indian Navy so flying helicopters must be quite an adventure what has there been any memorable incident that you would like to share lots of memorable difference between flying helicopters from I actually joined helicopters because I wanted to stay on ships if you joined the maritime reconnaissance or the big aircraft they would operate only from land when I joined it is an interesting experience landing a helicopter on land is simple when you landed on a sea where the ship is rolling pitching, yawing, heaving you have to coordinate all the movements land takeoff and especially when you are doing it in the dark night dark night there are no visual references you are entirely based on instruments I remember once I was flying it was a dark night pitch dark night and it is very disorienting you cannot trust your instincts because your body will be telling you you are ranking right by 30 degrees but actually you are straight you are not supposed to go out by your feelings you are only supposed to go by instruments and I just peeped outside and I saw ships above you that is very disconcerting because you wonder whether you are underwater because the ship is above you actually that is called the fishbowl effect which happens because the helicopter is moving forward you are angled like this so your difference becomes different and you are not feeling there that is when your training comes into your kicks in and you say don't rely on all this go by instruments and come back and land safely or do your mission it is a very interesting experience being at sea you are all alone you and your the camo helicopter they flew a single pilot so there is no other pilot to help you you are all alone you will do what you have to do Sir your unique perspective has clearly been pivotal in shaping India's maritime interest how full pilling or rewarding has that been for you and how do you think your own personal perspective has shifted throughout your tenure as you grow in any organization you have to keep changing you have to keep evolving when I am in the navy like for example all of you are there you are all in your own community it is very easy to come across with people so in the navy when I talk to say Gulaya or Vijay so it is all very simple I use one language and everybody understands it the same way but as you grow higher in service and you interact for example from the maritime point of view there are about 25 take holders different ministries handling maritime issues so when you go to the top position there you have to be able to speak and be understood very clearly because everybody understands what you say differently because they come from a different experience so that is what I learnt how in a democracy you have to have patience you have to have the ability to convince to inspire to educate before some decision is taken there is no top down order like you do in the navy there is a very consultative, collaborative way so as you and as you know people when you join startups you will have to look at various issues when is the excitement of just producing or getting a product but when you try to sell it to the user you have the finance fellows you have a whole lot of other people that is when you require different skill sets and sadly India is to my mind is still sea blind because a lot of the people who are in policy making decisions sit in Delhi they don't have that vision of the sea, what is the importance of the sea and that again has to be drummed in when we go as a navy or as a maritime person to convince them that you know the sea is where your prosperity lies the future lies in west exit just to explain to when I was explaining to the national security advisor I told him that you know when you look at energy the oil coming if you look at a very large ultra large crude carrier it carries oil which is equivalent to 100 good strains not wagons 100 good strains a container ship which is coming it carries 2 billion US dollars worth of equipment or goods that is the kind when somebody says okay you have to protect the ship going through some areas which are volatile that is the meaning if one when something gets save the states of Hormuz which is near Persian Gulf you know where the states are okay it's near Iran if there is a problem between Iran the US the Lloyds hikes up the cost of the energy that you are getting the fossil fuel that you are getting and one dollar increase in a barrel of oil sets our GDP back by 2 billion that is nearly 10,000 or 12,000 crore rupees that is the kind of effect that it has to explain to them that 99% of all financial transactions communications everything that you are doing is coming through submarine cable is something most people don't know everybody thinks it is through some satellite no it is all coming through undersea cable why undersea cables are important to be protected you are aware that there are people targeting undersea cables so these are issues that take a lot of time effort energy to convince so this is what I learnt I think as I grew in service how to convince how to understand that the seas are important and they have to be secured that was very insightful truly said that wisdom ripens with experiences mostly yes as the former director general of project seaward could you discuss the strategic advantages of expanding the project and creating the largest naval base of the east this is a long dream of incidentally IIT madras has been involved in seabird so in the 1980s early 80s we realized that Mumbai which was the main port on the west coast was getting congested with too many ships the infrastructure was aging we had dry docks which were built in 18 something and there was no way that we could expand also there were some geographical disadvantages of Mumbai one it was very close to Pakistan it was vulnerable to attacks from Pakistan that time Pakistan was our main enemy and the sea coast the sea bed was continental shelf the depths were very gradual so there was a lot of work done we scouted around and found this base in Karnataka, Uttar Karnataka called Uttar and there are a lot of advantages natural advantage was that there is no siltation that takes place you are aware of the kind of problems siltation causes a lot of money that is involved in maintenance dredging etc second it was closer to the south which is where the Indian ocean region has to be dominated and for future challenges it had a steeper depth contour so our submarines that were moving out could quickly dive instead of going on surface for very long including our big ships could be accommodated therefore this whole project came up it was about 25,000 crore project in different phases plan is to base 50 ships and they have a naval dockyard there for ship repair we have a ship lift one of the largest ship lifts of the country where a ship is lifted actually and brought and repaired we are making an air field there we have ammunition depots 10,000 houses it's a big huge township land and it's about most of what half of it has already been done and people have already started using it so it's a big project where IIT Madras has been involved when I was the director general we approached IIT for a lot of our structural drawings etc and we got a lot of help from it's impressive to hear about the scale and strategic importance of this project the navy has been involved in a lot of joint exercises with other navy so including the recent Malabar exercise so how important are these exercises and what have we learned from these actually Malabar started in 1993 it was started with the US navy and then gradually we added on the Japanese navy and the Australian navy recently initially they were they used to just take part in the regular members of Malabar these are we call them combined exercises we don't call them joint joint we refer to it as the army navy combined exercises are with other countries so we tend to gain a lot from it's like when you interact with institutions educational institutions from other countries you pick up best practices we have these exercises are not only at sea we have an initial planning conference we have a final planning conference we got subject matter expert exchanges so we have discussions we have lectures on certain important issues and when we then operate together we understand how their operating procedures are pick up best practices in maintenance and operation and slowly I think the whole aim of these exercises is to build trust as you keep building trust then the complexity and the scope keeps increasing so one is that we build trust second we build interoperability aim is to become not only interoperable interchangable that means my helicopters Indian naval helicopters should be able to operate from US navy ships similarly and vice versa Japanese, Australian our aim is that and in case there is one big hurdle still that we have to overcome that is we have something called the combat management system which are basically today's network environment there is no time to talk on wireless etc it is all done automatically data linked everything is done so that is still not happening between us and the other three are data linked we are not data linked once that happens I think we will be able to in case there is no push comes to shove we will be able to do high end operations together that is where we want to progress heard that you go by the nickname KB among your colleagues is there any interesting story behind it nothing my name is Karambir so I think a little long everybody gets a nickname in fact earlier in our in our always we always use the surname and the initial initial meaning A, A golaia or something like that that is how I got my name nothing really there is no real secret about it the navy has been exploring exciting new technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics like you spoke earlier so how is the navy collaborating with the educational institutes like IT Madras to advance these technologies there are MOUs that have happened and I think we will be able to explain better what all has happened a lot of work is happening on this like I told you it is a triangle academia, the industry and the user so we are very keen that our start ups the entire defense ecosystem is built up right from the DRDO who are bigger industries to start ups everybody in fact I was even looking at my suggestion was to make the navy as a venture capitalist we are able to fund start ups and get things done so everything possible is being done to get the new technologies like and AI is going to be ubiquitous everywhere so there are a lot of areas where we have a lot of data which can feed into AI like we have maritime domain awareness there are very very large inputs are available which are amenable to AI but we have to also work to before we get into using AI well to get a data data driven navy everything on have enough data so that it can feed into the AI that's also one effort that is happening when getting together with academia and industries also happening I just spoke about that swabalamban seminar that was the 75 ideas were asked for I don't know how many have happened we must invite people from IIT Madras for the swabalamban that will help and we must interact more that's the only way that's why I have mentioned about this military and civil fusion if you don't have that and today what has happened another thing that realisation that has dawned on to us is that earlier the defence technology defence technology was the frontrunner you had nasa, you had darpa etc which were feeding into commercial tech today commercial tech has gone well ahead and there is lots that defence can learn from application of civilian technologies in defence that is also one of the jobs that the NIIO and directorate of indigenisation is doing scope is tremendous and we really look forward to interacting with all of you any given not only when your students here you go out and join the industry open your own start-ups become unicorns we are very keen to be associated with the academia can you share what has been your most valuable lesson you have learnt from this and what new do you learn from each of these roles how do you like approaching these new roles when you the navy has given me the opportunity to do whole lot of different roles leadership role as an operator what I would somebody told me that person gave me an advice which he never followed but I followed that advice was that don't take yourself seriously take a job seriously when you approach any thing please don't worry about your personal ambition if you want to have a personal ambition your personal ambition should be to do this job well undertake this responsibility well and that is how I have approached with a sort of with an attitude to do my best for the responsibility that I have been given I mean I was talking about myself sometimes when you take a destroyer command it is worth it is cost about nearly 10,000 crores you have 400 people on board you have equipment and the entire charge is given to you so it is a huge responsibility so there is no time to think of anything else but to focus on how to get the best out of the machine the personnel that have been given to you to achieve the role of the Navy so you got to have positivity you got to have energy you got to delegate the whole lot of things that you have to do and each job teaches you something or the other the advantage or disadvantage both of being at sea is that you are all alone when you go out at sea you can't get out yourself along with your team so that's why the team spirit comes up so this is what I think I have learned and this is how I think all of us must approach the any responsibility that you have given these sound like really valuable lessons I wish all of us could have a mindset like you the Navy has been involved in a lot of humanitarian and disaster relief missions which can be challenging while balancing it with the national security objective so can you share how what challenge has the Navy faced and how does the Navy deal with it HDR is a humanitarian assistance disaster relief is one of the roles of the Navy we believe in it and we prepare for it we you must be aware that we had this 2004 tsunami that is where birth of this quad if people keep talking about what happened each HDR mission that is there is important not only within the country outside the country whether it was the cyclone which are hitting southwest Indian ocean region whether it was the water shortage in Maldives various we look at it as an opportunity why do we look at it as an opportunity because if we are not useful to our neighbors when they require it then we are not able to knit ourselves as a neighborhood it is applicable even in your own colony when your neighbor is going through a crisis if you don't help that person out then you don't build that bond so the aim is India's aim security one of the national security objectives is to keep the Indian ocean region as a well-knit region not to cause schisms here which countries like China etc. can exploit so when we do HDR missions we go outside help different countries aim is to make them friends build trust and make sure that we don't have these kind of crevices or cracks in our relationship which the countries like China etc. can exploit it is serving actually both the purposes of altruistic purpose and security objective with humanitarian and relief missions so for the students at IT Madras and similar institutes who wish to join the navy in your future do you have any advice for them we would love to have IIT graduates in the navy I don't know if you actually want to go into the navy you realize what kind of opportunities we had this ad called oceans of opportunity for all of you the oceans of opportunity in the navy I can tell you starting from in the marine field marine engineering ship design, submarine design submarine construction ship construction, repairs, ship repairs ship construction aeronautical engineering unmanned IT in the navy it is basically a technology oriented service and if you come there you will find that there is so much of job satisfaction in we have everything starting from the R&D which is going on we have people doing networking varied systems getting them all together we have organizations like WESI we have working with closed linkages with DRDO so there is so much to do and if you have the inspiration to serve the nation and also enjoy the fruits of technology I think in the navy is the best combination opportunities for collaboration between academia and the navy so now we will be moving to the Q&A session of the fireside chat and I would like to invite the audience for participation if you have a question for the admiral the managers will come to you with the mics and we will try to take as many questions as time permits please keep in mind that we want respectful and inclusive environment so please refrain from asking any offensive or controversial questions good morning admiral I am Aryan you have spoken quite often in numerous talks about a different diplomacy just a little louder is this better let's go again Aryan Ayati Matharaj you have spoken quite often about a defense diplomacy and see forward diplomacy with India as a net security provider in the IOR how did Sri Lanka's crisis impact Indian maritime diplomacy if it did and what is and what did the navy do to circumvent that thanks sir Aryan Sri Lanka actually if you ask me 10 years back we were pretty lethargic in terms of how we engaged our neighbors if I can use the word complacent it is it is only the China challenge that has woken all of us up we realized the kind of money that they were pumping in the belt and road initiative the loans that they were giving at certain they were following a system very opaque system if you see if you look at the Hamban Tota or the Palombo project their belt and road initiative has pretty opaque we are not aware of their interest rates are high the only Chinese companies and Chinese workers can do this so it is a game plan that they have the select countries that have that are in trouble in terms economically like for example Pakistan and Sri Lanka got into trouble of course it was a combination of bad luck and poor management they went in for natural fertilizer which backfired there the COVID came in tourism industry packed up so it was a sort of a combination of bad things with less resilient economies could not take but China took advantage of that and we for us it is a big geopolitical loss if Sri Lanka is not self reliant and is not strong therefore if you see now India has given a lot of assistance to Sri Lanka and Japan and Japan trans and India they have got together now to make sure that they resolve this the debt crisis in Sri Lanka because Sri Lanka is sitting right at the base of India you might not know this but Colombo port 80% of what Colombo port container port handles is for India all are containers that are coming are coming to Colombo and then they are trans shipped to India it is very important to us there is a very strategic port called Hanban Tota which is if the debt is not managed properly the Chinese would want to get it as debt for equity debt for sovereignty they might want to take that over so we are cognizant of that the government is cognizant and they are working hard to make sure that Sri Lanka is protected the entire onslaught of the economic onslaught that has happened and China is partly to blame for it does it answer your question I would like if you don't mind a bit more on how we have evolved our maritime diplomacy to respond to it because I remember a very beautiful guide up by user on the defense diplomacy part and I had not heard a lot of talk about it afterwards so is that something that we can see in the future defense diplomacy defense diplomacy is an extremely important part of our role what we do is we know what our intentions are one is that we our prime minister has talked about SAGAR which is security and growth for all in the region second we have a focus is on neighborhood first third we are looking at these are the guiding lights for us in defense diplomacy what we do is as a navy a ship can train its guns or missile at a person it can also host the head of the state for dinner it can do many roles and we are doing that through a combination of capacity building and capability development capacity meaning we have built floating docks for Sri Lankan navy we are giving them ships we have built OPVs for them through our dockyards shipyards and when you talk about capability development is training we are doing a lot of training for Sri Lankan naval people these are the components of defense diplomacy which are complimenting the larger issue of security and growth for all in the region neighborhood first etc there are several initiatives that have been taken but it will take me a long time to tell you but we are at it with every nation around us so that we compliment what India's foreign policy is therefore we call it defense diplomacy Namaste sir my name is Shubham I am from department of humanities and social sciences sir I think the British because at that time we don't think about like colonizing aspect because we don't build a navy army we have army but now we have a strong navy strong army and everything military aspect but still sir why our Indian policies is like not too much aggressive like as you mentioned about China they use bull warrior diplomacy and cabbage wrap technique sir so my question is that like they are as we mentioned belt and road initiative they are violating our national integrity our map like we show that part of Jammu and Kashmir in our map and they are making road there and they are changing name of Arunanchal Pradesh which we claim that is our and we still do lot of economic activity with them why I am telling that now because now we have all power we are like failure power and still we are afraid like there was Taiwan was there and we didn't recognize we didn't even send our embassy there just to make a good relationship with them so sir they didn't even respect us in that kind of manner so why do even do this kind of thing with China and to defeat them in every aspect be it economy be it army why don't we expand our political surrounding like a Djibouti in Africa and as you mentioned an African nation why don't we build our ports like string of pulse theory they are surrounding us and still we are waiting to as you mentioned the economic zone 200 nautical mines they follow the 9-dash policy in the South China Sea and they completely violate the integrity of Vietnam and other island and so sir my question is like to beat them we have to follow and we have to think like them so what is our Indian government doing regarding them so sir why we are not building ports in African nation or the Polynesian country what our navy is doing regarding them thank you sir it's a very interesting question Shubham it's not that India is not doing anything India is doing a lot of things in this field and that is why when I talked about sea blindness a lot of effort took place to explain this whole thing that you know the Chinese joggernaut is moving in every fashion in a very aggressive fashion they follow their they've got a middle kingdom mentality you are the center of the earth everybody is you know subordinate or vassal state that is what they would call it so they have a different viewpoint on the world we have a different viewpoint on the world and as India we've got a viewpoint that Vasudeva Kutupakam we want to we would like to prosper along with everybody else not exclude in exclusion to everybody else and what the India is doing is very smartly you know there is a comprehensive national power difference between China and India you are aware of today China if I talk about naval power China is building one Indian Navy every four years that is the kind of power they have so there is no point going and banging your head against them so you don't confront China if you recognize Taiwan you are confronting China if you contain China what is the aim of China China wants to become a global power how will we how will it become a global power one is to reach out to the world that means that is why the basis because the markets resources energy everything is coming if you look at China map either China goes to its east there is nothing there it has to come west and west is towards us towards Africa towards Europe Africa for resources Europe markets Southeast Asia for markets South Asia for markets West Asia for energy so they have to come this way so that is why we have things like the quad now quad people think you know if the navies are involved that is the only way no we are looking at very important issues we are looking at making sure that supply chain resilience is built in in which case whatever is was you know the point was that by mistake or by mistake or whatever too much of too many eggs were put into China's basket now slowly we have to diversify we have to get out of that first second the movement of China which is to the west that is like you are talking about Djibouti etc has to be checked so India is doing that we have got couple of ports I can't talk about openly but there are ports that we are building to check Chinese expansion why is our external affairs minister Mozambique Mozambique is going to give us LNG 40% of our LNG because we have to break away from the Qatar which is Qatar is the single soul provider of LNG for us so on a twin track this thing one is build our own comprehensive national power before we start taking on China that is by getting our economy going building enough resilience knitting the neighborhood together all these and intelligently containing China by bringing out like for example the BRI BRI is being countered by IPEF that is been launched between US large number of countries which have come together we are trying to make sure that we have a parallel you can't just keep telling BRI is bad, BRI is bad you have to have an alternative to BRI so that is what alternatives are being made AAGC, IPEF these are all build back better world that didn't work out so we are working on it but the speed the advantage China has is that they have got sharp part all instruments of state can be aligned together to achieve what they want whereas we are in a democracy so like Xi Jinping says there is a chaos of democracies because they are not able to move as fast as what China has been so we have got a challenge but it's not that we are completely sleeping, we were sleeping all the whole world was sleeping for about 10-15 years back thinking that China has benign if you get them economically more enmeshed things will be good but now we have seen what they are up to and the world and India is fast waking up and taking action to counter this challenge good morning sir, Jai Hind actually I do not have any question it's more like a fanboy moment I want to tell you sir that you have been a real inspiration to me and you are the superhero I want to become in the future oh god I feel nervous sir I want to join Indian Armed Forces as an officer after I graduate and I would like to meet you in my Air Force uniform after that that's it why not Neval uniform hello sir, this is Karthik how is the Indian Armed Forces preparing for the upcoming period of transition like we saw the recent domestic military reorganizations like creating a post of chief of defense staff so how is the Indian Armed Forces how is it impacting on the Indian Armed Forces and the foreign policies and the problems we have with the neighboring countries yeah this is one of the most important reforms that have happened the two reforms that took place one was the institution of the chief of defense staff and one was the department of military affairs you know in the government only departments can do business and they can interact so the armed forces and the military people were attached offices it's only the bureaucrats who could transact business in the government so first reform that has happened is the department of military affairs now the chief of defense staff as the secretary DMA has the ability to interact with other like I told you in the maritime space there are 26 stakeholders I as the chief of naval staff can interact with them it has to only through a secretary in the government of India then there is too much of red tapism so that fortunately now has been removed with the department of military affairs and the CDS who is heading it I think its primary job will be to have theaters theaters for joint war fighting what has happened is you have seen what is happening in Russia you have seen in Ukraine and the modern war has shown us that unless you put all three services unless they plan together and they fight together we are not going to achieve success so the prime job of the chief of defense staff is to get joint planning and joint execution done by joining the army navy together to form theaters so there will be theaters I mean I have not yet come out but before this they were at least seven or eight commands which were going to fight a war with China whereas China changed to theater that means one person is controlling all action against India similarly now we will be able to do that we have a unified approach to war fighting that will be the biggest success if that happens well we are able to focus all our equipment tactics doctrines everything to fight as one team next question Hi sir I am Anit Pol from Christ College of Engineering my ambition is to become a pilot I would like to know the experience of your experience on helicopter pilot sorry as a helicopter pilot I would like to thank you flying is extremely interesting helicopter flying is even more interesting because helicopter is dynamically unstable as a machine if you if you push it to the left it will tend to come to the right it will exceed it is not meant to fly actually unlike an aeroplane aeroplane is dynamically unstable it adds more complexity to flying it takes a lot of self-discipline to be able to handle a helicopter first of all to understand the entire helicopter dynamics this is your science person you will understand it quickly and thereafter how to operate it in different conditions if you join for example the air force you will be flying at very high altitudes where there is no reserve apart so you have to be very careful there is no when you make an approach there is no way of going around you have to you are committed to landing if you are operating in the valleys there is bad weather the winds are erratic and it can suddenly become zero visibility if you are operating in the deserts you have very high temperatures and when you come to land the sand gets kicked up so each place has its own challenge it will be very interesting life at sea of course like I told you there is very high humidity again the reserve apart is more at sea level but because of the humidity the performance, the temperature the performance of the engines and the machine changes and of course importantly the area on which to land kind of turbulence that is generated by a ship's wake all this makes things very difficult very challenging but also very interesting so I am very happy that you want to become a helicopter pilot please go ahead my full last question hello sir, I am Eshwar so in recent years the government has promoted privatization of the defense so like what are what are your views on privatization of defense and its future its future when you say privatization yes sir, they have signed licenses with many companies for manufacturing that is the way ahead you know we had defense, the public sector undertakings that were mainly doing defense production they are very inefficient they were and we need to get efficiencies we need to get agility we have to catch up with with times technologies moving you know how fast technology is moving how fast electronics is moving that is the crux of modern day warfare how we can incorporate civilian technologies all this can only come through young agile people which is the private industry start-ups and I think it is an extremely good step only thing is we have to support the private industry that is why I keep talking about venture capitalism we have to give money, money is what matters if they have to produce and once you make a product then how do you mass produce it for requirements this is what we have to think through make policies that are not very cumbersome we have to accept failure I remember when I went to Darpa there was a director she was an Indian only we asked her what is the success rate in Darpa she said 10% just 10% and most of the ideas they failed the ability to hold hands pay money, they got people from Silicon Valley they were working on these things but they were accepting because they were challenging the status quo bringing in new path-breaking ideas success rates have to be low we have to have the ability to accept that absorb this give enough money enough incentive to young people like you all to produce idea to come up with ideas that is the only way I am very supportive of this idea of privatization because the DPSU they have become too big they have become like dinosaurs they were only feeding themselves and there was nothing much coming out from this thank you sir we will now be closing the Q&A session thank you so much sir for joining us today and sharing your expertise and insights with us it was an honor to have this fireside chat with you thank you audience for your lovely participation and engagement and now I will be handing the mic over to for the vote of thanks thank you so much today I would like to thank our honorable professor Rajat Sarma sir, invited faculties and my dear friends I on behalf of Oceana and the entire department of Ocean Engineering extend my hearty thanks to everyone present here I feel deeply gratified and thank admiral Karmavir Singh for accepting our invitation and focusing the focus on I extend my heart well thanks to our director professor V. Kamakoti and the students present here. I would like to thank Rina for associating with us and our sponsors, KMIW, Wetham Design, ITD Seventation, Invent Ocean, Conceptia, and our alumni for extending their support. We thank the ICSR staff and the security section for their technical assistance in making this event hassle-free. We sincerely thank NCC cadet J.W. Santosh Kumar for guard mounting the admiral. Finally, I would like to thank the entire team which worked hard towards making this event a success. Once again, I thank you all. Thank you, Navneet. Finally, I'm very grateful to the audience for their constant enthusiasm throughout the event. I wish the entire event all the success and I hope you guys would definitely have fun exploring the events. Now, I would request the audience to stand for National Anthem. N.Jav Singh Gujarat Maratha Ravida Ukalavanga Himachalaya Munaganga Uchalajaladhitaranga Tavashubha Nameshage Tavashubha Ashishmage Pabha Jaya Gagh Jainadana Mangaladayat Jaiyahe Hala We have arranged light refreshments for the audience. I request the audience to be patient and enjoy the refreshments as we got a whole lot of excited events for you. Thank you. So, on this memorable day, we would like to click a picture with you. I request the team members of Oceana to get on the stage. Hello, people. We have light refreshments arranged outside. You can enjoy refreshments and we have pretty exciting events as well. So, you can go to OE department and take a look at them.