Given the need for HCD and the nature of the defence sector, this section enlists 30 policy recommendations that can create a sustainable ecosystem in India to support a human- centric future-ready defence sector. While many of these recommendations seem similar, they have been differentiated to ensure shades of meaning on a particular topic. These recommendations range from the formulation of HCD design teams to the inclusion of HCD at a strategic level. Therefore, these recommendations aim to address the challenges and barriers raised in the last section to provide a sustainable inclusion of HCD in the Indian defence sector.

1. Create awareness in the private and public enterprises for the need for HCD and the value it can create for the defence sector. Mass education about HCD principles and practices is a must for all stakeholders in the Indian defence sector.

2. Involve and educate higher leadership in various public and private defence organizations on the benefits of incorporating HCD principles and methodologies in their organizational processes and outcomes.

3. Create multi-functional teams that, along with engineering designers and developers, involve both HCD practitioners and defence Subject Matter Experts. Do not use engineering designers as a substitute for HCD designers. Create a new role of an HCD designer on teams involved in design for defence.

4. Start HCD activities at the inception of the project with an adequate budget to support HCD practitioners throughout the systems lifecycle. Integrate HCD into all aspects of the systems lifecycle to ensure a complete HSI-based unification for all projects.

5. Ensure end-user involvement in all phases of design. End-users should not be confused with the procurers and commissioners of the system. End-users and their worldviews, along with mental models need to be grasped using work analysis techniques. Contextual in-situ studies of end-users should be encouraged. Given the nature of the defence sector, the defence forces should support engagements with end-users and the designers to HCD considerations in the final developed technologies. Industries should also tap into the pool of ex-service people in the country to enable focus groups, interviews and in-depth understanding of end-user mental models.

6. Incorporate HCD-based metrics that account for usability, productivity, and safety along with verification and validation of all HCD-based interim steps of every stage of the systems lifecycle.

7. Develop a joint vision for “HCD in Indian Defence” shared by the government labs, defence forces, and private industries.

8. Develop competency in educational organizations in the Defence sector (such as DAIT, INS Shivaji, MCEME, NDA, amongst others) about HCD. The entire defence educational sector should have a course on “HCD for Defence” as a part of their curriculum. This will enable sensitization among the forces so that they can then ask for the HCD-based equipment in operational settings. Specifically, they will know exactly what to look for in well-designed products that the defence forces acquire.

9. Design schools in India should cater to courses in design for defence with the syllabus derived from HCD, Human Factors and Systems Design. Design schools should be developing this curriculum with subject matter experts from all the aforementioned human-centric areas along with the forces.

10. All engineers from engineering institutions such as AICTE-based engineering colleges and IITs should have a course on HCD or Human Factors for defence to enable them to understand the challenges of HCD in defence. If this course is not a part of the curriculum, then these institutions and boards can provide online resources for mass-education.

11. Funding agencies may consider funding research and development on topics related to HCD. These include the ARDB Systems panel, Naval Board, amongst other government defence funding agencies. These funds should support and enable futuristic design projects (e.g., concept design of cockpits of aircrafts), as well as support mundane human-centric design applications (e.g., anthropometric design of seating in combat aircrafts).

12. In conjunction with the last point, HCD-based approaches should be developed for the defence sector to develop solutions for various social and environmental conditions in which the forces operate. Issues of survivability, comfort and safety are a concern that HCD designers should address. These include border conditions in extreme weather conditions in the Siachen glacier or socially sensitive conditions of the various borders with neighboring countries in the northeastern region of India.

13. Government agencies such as DRDO should create a specialized lab for HCD, Human Factors, and Human Systems Integration that will assist in all aspects of HCD- based support in the system's lifecycle.

14. The newly opened DRDO-Industry-Academia (DIA) Centers of Excellence should have a vertical supporting HCD, Human Factors, and HSI (currently, the DIAs are heavily- geared towards technology:
https://www.drdo.gov.in/adv-tech-center).

15. Evaluation agencies and programs such as IDEX and TDF should adopt HRLs and adapt them to their own needs of project management for evaluating human readiness, along with the TRLs for technology readiness.

16. Evaluation agencies and programs such as IDEX and TDF should involve HCD and Human Factors Experts for curation, sanitization, and reformulation of their project requirements, problem statements, and calls for proposals. This will enable the applicant industries to streamline their applications towards a proper conception of HCD right at the formulation stage.

17. HRLs and HCD criteria should be incorporated into all projects that involve end-user engagement. Organizations should ensure that the HCD dimension is added to their existing development methodologies and processes (such as agile, concurrent engineering, etc.). Defence Integrators, both private and public, should aim towards an organizational thrust on the incorporation of HCD for enhanced system delivery.

18. Government defence agencies, ranging from research to acquisition, should incorporate HCD principles and practices at a strategic level to enhance the quality of service, delivery outcomes, and end-user support in all phases of their technology acquisition, design, development, maintenance, and decommissioning programs.

19. Startups and MSMEs who are involved in developing defence technologies that may involve end-user engagement should account for HCD efforts in their various budget heads in projects. In turn, the funding and facilitating agencies should specifically ask for HCD activities to be supported by both startups and MSMEs.

20. In order to ensure change management for human-centric outcomes, organizations should form internal teams along with HCD experts (acting as facilitators). These meetings will facilitate change management in defence organizations to ensure HCD activities as part of their core competencies.

21. Organizations, both public and private, should ensure that HCD activities and technical design activities are jointly optimized for human-centric outcomes of services, products, and systems.

22. Organizations, both public and private, should ensure that HCD-based outcomes are finalized and end-user acceptance is gained before development begins. This will reduce endless changes to the design once the development phase has begun.

23. System designers (private and public), as well as the end-users (defence forces), should both ensure that HCD activities support the design for reliability, maintainability, availability, and safety at all phases of their systems lifecycle. This will ensure a reduction of operational costs in maintenance and decommissioning. This will also ensure that human factors in maintenance becomes a human-centric activity rather than a purely technical activity.

24. Defence equipment should be designed taking human capabilities and limitations into account. This involves considering both Indian men and women to support the accessibility of both genders in the forces.

25. An important aspect of HCD is in terms of designing for the human scale in terms of body measurements as well as static and dynamic human performance measures. While the science of anthropometry addresses these issues and a number of anthropometric tables have been created for the Indian population, a more robust and diversified set of anthropometric measurements can be created for the defence sector aiming at detailed measures (e.g. phalanx length) to improve the granularity of anthropometric data. Due to the sensitivity of the information, the DRDO labs can act as the custodian and information can be shared with the design teams when they are working on government projects. In addition, the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers can commission a database for such measurements based on data gathered from ex-service people and can be shared on a restricted basis for their member industries.

26. SIDM members and large private defence integrators should endeavor to develop their own R&D facilities for human performance, human factors, and human- centered design.

27. There should be an explicit focus on the concept design of next generation defence products and systems in the entire sector. These should be spearheaded by strategic designers, speculative designers, as well as detailed concept designers.

28. There should be an effort to organize and encourage HCD-based tradeshows that showcase the next-generation of human-centric products, systems, and services.

29. Commission trade studies and visioning roadmaps for various aspects of HCD that chart its future in the defence sector in India.

30. Government agencies (DRDOs, Ministry of Defence), in consultation with the forces, should develop a roadmap about how HSI activities will be taken up jointly by various wings of the defence forces for a systems viewpoint towards the inclusion of HSI.


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