1. Today as we complete 62 years of ‘Army Day’ it gives me great pleasure to be amongst you all. My best wishes for a Happy New Year to all of you and through you to all our countrymen, to tell them that we rededicate and renew our pledge as the Army of this great Nation, to uphold our secular and democratic values as also our resolve to ensure the integrity and safety of our great Nation.

2. The year gone by marks another year in which your Army performed with selfless dedication and sacrifices. We lost 15 Officers, 13 JCO and 159 men during this period in various operations. We provided immediate, timely and essential assistance in natural calamities like Leh cloud burst, flood relief in Haryana, Punjab and UP and continued to support environmental initiatives in Mussoorie hills, Garhwal & Ladakh. We also provided assistance during the CWG and our sportsmen won laurels both in CWG as also in Asian Games. We will continue our contribution towards safety, security and nation building. For us it is ‘Nation First – Always & Everytime’.

3. On taking over I laid down my vision, to ‘hone the Army into a well motivated, operationally prepared, well equipped force capable of meeting the security challenges faced by the Nation. Also to initiate the transformation process to function in a networked joint services environment, by leveraging technology and human resource capital in consonance with the rich values and traditions of the Indian Army'.

4. From this I derived my goals, so let me dwell a bit on these.

5. Transformation. Aim is to transform into an agile, lethal and net worked force, which is 'capability based', to meet the future challenges. It includes enhancing operational capability, through reorganization, restructuring, force development and relocation. The original study laid down scope for expert group studies on few issues and establishment of test beds to validate our concept before we implement the changes. We are ensuring that our ministry and the Army are 'in sync'  on these issues, so that the implementation is smooth. We are essentially looking at :-

(a) Re-organising and flattening our HQs to include Army HQ, to bring in better and faster decision making processes, reducing overlapping charters and bring in more responsiveness.
(b) Integration of logistics to make the logistical functions focused, responsive and structured to support high tempo of operations.
(c) Theaterisation of combat support to ensure synergisation of all resources as part of theater battle plan.
(d) Re-organisation and relocation to enhance and optimize our operational capabilities, both for plains and mountains.
(e) Bringing in more focused, operationally effective and practical training methodologies.
(f) Creation of network centricity.
(g) Addressing tri service and inter agency synergy and jointness.

6. Modernisation. This year will be the first year, in which we have endeavoured to meet all our financial budgetary targets. We have a long term integrated plan for phased modernization and capacity building. I must explain here that in any force you will have 30% state of the art cutting Technology, 40% of equipment of current prevalent technologies and 30% needing change as the technology is not giving desired dividends. This does not imply that this 30% equipment is ancient, outdated or useless. It is still functional and war worthy. Our thrust has been on :-

(a) Surveillance and decision support systems.
(b) Acquisition of deep strike capabilities like Pinaka and Brahmos.
(c) Betterment of our artillery.
(d) Bringing in equipment to make us network enabled and move on to network centricity.
(e) Betterment of our mechanized forces.
(f) Improve our aviation capability.

7. I am positive that we are on the correct course and our preparedness as also capabilities are significantly improving.

8. We have also embarked on major programmes to improve and nurture our human resource capital. It is the man behind the weapon that will make the difference. Projects Gyandeep, Kshamta and Kaushal are progressing well to empower our valiant men.

9. Ladies and Gentlemen, let me once again, through you all convey to our countrymen that their Army is ready 24x7, to take on the challenges to protect our borders and uphold the values of our democracy. In the year 2011, we begin with the hope that all that we have worked out for ourselves will remain on track, in terms of transformation and modernization. We shall strive to achieve the targets laid down by us.

Thank you very much.