BENGALURU: Synergia Foundation, a city-based futuristic thought-leadership think-tank, convened a high-level Round Table on ‘Digital Security & National Sovereignty’ on Friday, bringing together senior military leaders, security experts, industry practitioners, policy makers and global thought leaders.
The deliberations highlighted the rapid evolution of digital threats, vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure, and urgent need for coherent national frameworks that balance security, sovereignty, innovation, and international cooperation.
Founder-President of Synergia Tobby Simon said, “Critical infrastructure is now largely controlled by private actors and there’s a need for convergence of expertise across military, security, intelligence, human security, and emerging technologies.
“Former DRDO chairman Dr G Satheesh Reddy cited recent disruptions to airports, hospitals and power grids, and called for the elimination of industrial vulnerabilities and development of advanced indigenous capabilities.
Lt Gen MU Nair (R) highlighted global incidents, from MV Dalli to disruptions across Portugal, India and US, illustrating how digital ecosystems underpin modern life.
In the first thematic session, Lt Gen Minhas (R) reflected on the unpredictability of the “new normal”, driven not by the emergence of new technologies but acceleration of their deployment. He pointed to the blurring of civil-military boundaries and need for sustained investment in capacity building.
Former National Cyber Security coordinator Lt Gen Rajesh Pant (R) stressed that India’s rising economic profile is unsettling for some actors, particularly in an uneasy neighbourhood, heightening the importance of digital preparedness.
Former IPS officer and Bengaluru police commissioner Pratap Reddy warned of increasingly asymmetric cyber operations, exacerbated by AI-enabled deepfakes and reduced response timelines, calling for greater trust between corporations and the state.
Data Security Council of India CEO Vinayak Godse drew attention to the proliferation of more than 2 million AI models and emerging “white coding” tools that automate malicious payloads.
Prof Arindam Ghosh of IISc discussed quantum sensing, human-rights implications, export control considerations, and the need for collaborative supply chains to support full-scale quantum computing in the second session, which explored structural and technological challenges in the digital domain.
