Chennai

India’s attack on nine terrorist centers in Pakistan was precise to the point that it took exactly 23 minutes to finish the job. While Pakistan could not even shatter a glass pane on Indian soil.

This is what India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has to say about Operation Sindoor, while he was speaking at Indian Institute of Technology in Madras.

Addressing the Convocation, Doval said, India hit precisely nine terrorist centres and Pakistani Military bases across Pakistan.

He said, “We missed none. We hit nowhere else except that…And it was precise to the point where we knew who was where.”

He added, “We are proud of it that some of the best systems that worked, whether it was our BrahMos systems, whether it was our integrated air control and command systems, whether it was our radars, whether it was the whole history of indigenous, that was being done at the battlefield surveillance, about the position of theirs.”

He said all this was tested on battlefield surveillance.

News agency ANI posted this video on X:

#WATCH | Chennai, Tamil Nadu | Speaking on Operation Sindoor, at IIT Madras, NSA Ajit Doval slams the foreign media for their reportage on the operation.

"Foreign press said that Pakistan did that and this...You tell me one photograph, one image, which shows any damage to any… pic.twitter.com/v13Pr8RuRf

— ANI (@ANI) July 11, 2025

He said: “We decided to have nine terrorist targets in the crisscross of Pakistan. It was not in the border area or something, which we thought was their defeat.”

Questioning the narrative built by sections of Western media on Operation Sindoor, Doval said, “You tell me one photograph, one imagery… You know, these days, these images are from satellites all over the world, which show any Indian damage being done, even a glass pane having been broken.

He said the Indian side showed pictures of before and after May 10 images of 13 Pakistani military bases to prove the effectiveness of its attacks.

India attacked Pakistani assets on May 10 and released the satellite images of destruction soon after at the briefing in New Delhi.

He was sure to make it clear the important link that has existed between technology and warfare in the history of civilisation.

He said, “Mughals brought here Hemu’s army, which is much more important than Babar and others. They brought bazookas and gunpowder and Indian elephants began to reverse, crushing their own troops. It is all technology.

Further addressing the students, he said, “Whether it is in defense, whether it is in manufacturing, social economic factors or any field, the one factor that will make a difference is you.”

He said both as individuals and collectively. The next 22 years, whatever they do will determine the fate of this nation.  

“If you have the technology, if you can meet the standards of the technology and surpass it, we will be able to achieve anything. But if we fail here, we will miss this window for many centuries to come.”

For the last thousand years a time like this hasn’t come, but the present generation has this opportunity; but only if they master it, technological needs are going to be vast in every field and every walk of life, but they will have to focus on some critical aspects.

He reflected on the development of 5G in India and said, something happened in 2020. It was a bad experience for the country. But certain decisions were taken and one of them was that India is going to completely indigenise its communications system. It was necessary for many security needs.

“At the same time, our country couldn’t afford to lose the technology battle and remain behind, decades behind.”

Within two and a half years, India was totally indigenous in 5G, which he explained, was against the 12 years China took to develop the same.

He also mentioned how critical it is that the communications and security of India are now completely Indigenous and if not, they are built by very trusted and close sources.

Coming back to addressing the youth at IIT, he said, “I was wondering what would be game changers for us. Artificial Intelligence. It took roughly 4.5 million years for man to discover fire which was one transformative technology.”

Fire changed the whole concept of the world and the way the man lived. Another tool is the wheel. And then many such things that were revolutionary but took shorter and shorter periods of time.

At the rate at which our world has been changing, AI will change our world every year at the same rate. Our world will soon become unrecognisable to the present.

He also said that a new window of technology will soon be open to India as theories around quantum particles are worked upon and studied, and that technology will change at an even higher rate.

He concluded with the story of having met a successful alumnus from IIT who was an American citizen. He told him: ‘‘Sir I’ve done so much for the American Army, but I am an IITian and have been able to do nothing for my country.’’

“I said we’ve got problems, you have an American citizenship and we can’t incorporate you,” Doval said.

Interestingly, “He said, ‘don’t give me any data, I will work on the basis of open data and I will teach your people to do the same. After I go, you integrate the data with your own people.’ We started working with him and he said, ‘I don’t want to do this for money. And he didn’t.”

On this note, he told the students the spirits he felt were best to carry the task they have at hand in the future, saying; “You are useless if life has no meaning, regardless of who you are. You will survive as long as you have something to achieve.”

Will power and spiritual power will keep us going. IIT, your energy, your circumstances and this nation gives you a meaning.

“I am over 80, I have lived my life but I know this country has got a great future but there is a factor and that is you. Do your best and give your best, I wish you, my best.”