The Indian Army’s Central Command on Saturday conducted its first-ever Strategic Communication Conclave in Lucknow, discussing the shifting nature of warfare and the crucial role of perception management, an official said.
The conclave aimed to examine strategic communication as an institutional capability within India’s national security architecture and generate actionable insights on doctrine, structures, processes, and preparedness in the emerging information space.
With close to 500 people in attendance, the conclave featured deliberations and panel discussions on strategic communication within the national security architecture, the official said in a statement.
The panellists and speakers included senior diplomats, government communication experts, and the media. The attendees included senior military personnel from the Central Command and communication professionals from the government and the private sector.
In his opening address, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Central Command, Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta highlighted the fundamental shift like warfare, which now encompasses the information and cognitive domains.
Underscoring the crucial role of perception management, he stated that perception shapes legitimacy, legitimacy shapes influence, and influence shapes outcomes. He also spoke about the weaponisation of narratives and the threat from conflicts below the threshold of war.
He pointed out that strategic communication cannot remain reactive, episodic, or personality-driven, but must become institutionalised, doctrine-backed, and capability-driven.
The conclave included an expert policy-level session on the institutional and national security dimensions, under the theme ‘Institutionalising Strategic Communication as a Capability for Future Preparedness in the Emerging Information Space’. India’s first female Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj (Retd), Ambassador Yashvardhan Sinha (Retd), and Lt Gen Raj Shukla (Retd) addressed the session.
A special interactive session was organised on the theme ‘Strategic Communication in Emerging Multi-Domain Operations: Strategies, Structures, Processes and Preparedness’, integrating policy and operational perspectives.
Retired civil and military officials, including Ambassador Dilip Sinha, Shantanu Mukharji, Veena Jain, and Lt Gen DP Pandey, shared key insights during the session.
Panel discussions with media on the themes ‘Shaping the mind space: Perception Management in the Strategic Domain’ and ‘Information Power and Strategic Communication’ addressed the importance of perception management and information power.
