Two-day CBRN conclave begins in New Delhi with address from the chief of defence staff
A CBRN conclave is taking place at the Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi, India on 26-27 February 2026. It is being organised by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), part of the Indian Ministry of Defence.
With the theme "From policy to practice: Building CBRN resilient India", the conference was inaugurated by chief of defence staff General Anil Chauhan. The two-day event brings together various experts and policymakers from the armed forces, central armed police forces and National Disaster Response Force with the aim to strengthen India’s response against CBRN threats, according to a government press release.
In his address, General Anil Chauhan stated that "CBRN needs to be considered as more of an environment than a threat, and we should brace ourselves to learn to live and operate in contaminated environments".
He underlined the need to stay ready with indigenous, state-of-the-art CBRN defence equipment for early warning systems, lightweight individual protective equipment and technologies, well-researched standard operating procedures, and protocols to carry out coordinated multi-agency operations.
Capacity building and medical management
Dr Samir V Kamat, secretary of the Department of Defence research and development and chairman of the DRDO, voiced the DRDO’s commitment to build a CBRN-resilient India through its specialised labs and centres which develop advanced CBRN threat defence technology. He urged the participants of the conference to use the event as an opportunity for peer learning and to contribute to advance research to build a resilient India.
Guest of honour of the event, director-general of the Armed Forces Medical Services (AMFS), Surgeon Vice Admiral Arti Sarin, highlighted the Vikiran Prehri programme, a joint initiative of DRDO and AFMS for training medical doctors and building capacity in the medical management of radiological events.
"The two-day event focuses on enhancing national resilience by [incorporating] stakeholder’s perspectives in training and infusion of technologies. This will enhance the preparedness of security agencies in coordinated response for handling any CBRN event," the government press release noted.
"The conclave underlined DRDO’s commitment in building a robust national network centric command and control framework utilising state-of-the-art sensors and artificial intelligence/machine learning tech for CBRN security and defence of the nation," it concluded.
