Synergia meet on global security set to bring top minds to Bengaluru

Where will you find the likes of Israeli historian and public intellectual Yuval Noah Harari and internet pioneer Vint Cerf hobnobbing with India’s Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan, the serving chiefs of the Indian Navy and Air Force, India’s National Cybersecurity Coordinator, and former and serving military, intelligence and diplomatic chiefs and leaders of the US, UK, Israel and other powers, and industry leaders from aerospace, defence and large and start-up technology firms?

This weekend, they will all be in Bengaluru, going head to head with their ideas of what advanced and emerging technologies hold for the future of global security in all its intriguing aspects – at the bi-annual Synergia Foundation Conclave. Synergia Foundation is a city-based think-tank. The conclave, a three-day affair featuring dozens of sessions, is a thought-leadership event meant to think about and articulate visions of the future. “Thought-leadership is vital. We, in India, must think about what the future holds for us and the world, and be able to act on those insights. That’s the work of think-tanks such as ours. Otherwise, we will always be behind the curve, catching up and reacting to events, rather than shaping the environment,” says Toby Simon, the founder and president of Synergia Foundation.

A former pharma industry executive who found himself in the thick of global security events and intrigues post-9/11, Simon has been bringing top leaders, from former prime ministers to intelligence and military chiefs to top technology experts, to Bengaluru for two decades.

“They all come because Synergia is a non-partisan and future-oriented think-tank. We are not funded by anyone and we do not advocate on behalf of anyone,” Simon says, adding, “In the last 15 years or so, we have made about 18-20 predictions, of which some 14-15 have come true. We were the first to talk about a coming pandemic, as far back as 2009; we gave thought-leadership on upcoming trends and problems such as the dark web and cybersecurity, 5G, global supply chain issues, etc. In fact, this edition of the conclave is themed on techno-diplomacy, a trend that we were among the earliest to identify.”

It is unusual for a security conclave of this magnitude and prominence to take place outside Delhi, that too in the deep south, and especially while being backed by India’s National Security Advisory Board. “We managed to convince people in Delhi to look at security issues from the perspectives of South India. After all, Bengaluru is where the technology industry is based. Companies with significant advanced technologies, such as those you hear of from Israel, etc., will come to have an increasing influence on governments and diplomacy,” says Simon.

“At the same time, from the city’s point of view, it is necessary for the government here to think, why should cutting-edge companies come here? Typically, governments compete for investments by offering land, water, power and tax incentives. But for those things, companies may as well go to Telangana or Chennai or even to Vietnam. This conclave will attempt to answer why they must come to Bengaluru, instead.”