Bhubaneswar: A delegation of 16 senior officers from National Defence College (NDC), New Delhi, visited the command and control centre or Bhubaneswar Operations Centre of the BSCL. The delegation also learnt various programmes undertaken by Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL).
Special Secretary, Urban Development department Prem Kumar Jha, who is also the mission director of Smart Cities under Odisha Government, chaired a meeting in which the visiting delegation was briefed about the various projects of BSCL by the senior officials concerned.
Under the “Socio-political study of India” the delegates from NDC are touring both rural and urban India to gain knowledge on the socio-political aspects of the people from different regions. The 16 officers’ team from NDC also included four defence officials from France, Indonesia, Uganda and Nepal. The other 12 senior officials from the visiting team included officials from Indian Army, Indian Air Force, Indian Navy, Police, Indian Administrative Service and Indian Administrative and Allied Services.
It can be mentioned here that the premier institute in Asia, NDC was inaugurated April 27, 1960 by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. NDC is one of its kind in the continent. The role of the college has remained largely unchanged since 1959, when the President of India sanctioned “the setting up of a National Defence College for providing instruction to senior service and civil service officers in the wider aspects of higher direction and strategy of warfare”.
Today, NDC continues to provide future decision-makers with the necessary skills and background for filling senior positions in national security and associated fields. The NDC was organised on the pattern of the Imperial Defence College (now Royal College of Defence Studies) of Britain.
The aim of NDC is to equip future policy makers with the background necessary for a broad understanding of the varied social, economic, political, military, scientific and organisational aspects involved in the planning of national strategy. With this objective NDC imparts training in national and international security related fields to the selected senior Defence and Civil Services officers and promotes research and understanding of various related issues by creating the necessary academic environment for such work.
The course not only caters to the needs of officers holding highly specialised appointments, but also provides general education to offer them a wider outlook on a great variety of state affairs. Such training becomes an additional qualification for officers already holding or likely to hold important appointments in the Government.