Effect of secessionist forces in Kashmir reduced: Doval

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval today said the effect of secessionist forces has "considerably" reduced in Jammu and Kashmir which is going through the assembly election process.
"Now the elections are taking place in Kashmir. They are going on peacefully. I think there is least violence during elections so far. There is much greater enthusiasm today despite boycott calls. The effect of secessionist forces has considerably reduced. All these factors become important," Doval said at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.
Doval cautioned about the ongoing activities in Pakistan- occupied Kashmir saying India needs to take a strategic view of the issue.

The former Chief of Intelligence Bureau said Pakistan has using terrorism thinking that they would be able to, at a very nominal cost, sustain this asymmetric warfare for an indefinite period.
He said another futuristic threat will be demographic ones as the country will have to think how to meet the aspirations of youths of the country.
"We have got to keep a happy people. We have got to have a population whose aspirations we are able to meet, which will require good governance. Good governance, on the face of it, may not look like linked with security but it is most fundamental," Doval said.

He said police modernisation and rule of law is another major requirement for security infrastructure.

Another set of threats will be new ones like cyberspace as conventional war may take a back seat, according to Doval.
He said India needs to undertake an "aggressive programme" of technology upgradation and research and development from drawing board to battlefield in defence sector.
"Country will have to start a very aggressive programme of technological upgradation...We require research and development right from drawing board to battlefield in defence sector. It is not a matter of great pride that the country is biggest consumer of defence systems," he said.

It is a matter of "disgrace" for a country whose first ordnance factory was started in 1801 when the world did not know how to manufacture anything, he said.