Non-state actors are "increasingly gaining access" to modern technologies of military use, Army Chief General Manoj Pande said on Thursday.

In a keynote address at an event here, he also asserted that amid a complicated military canvas, India "continues to rise".

"Today emerging technologies are no longer superpower-centric. Non-state actors are increasingly gaining access to modern technologies of military use and employing...in conflict. The fallout is an increased propensity in risk-taking behaviour and low threshold for initiation of armed conflicts," General Pande said.

He delivered the address at the NDTV Defence Summit.

"Amidst all of above, the legacy challenges of unsettled borders continue. Newer threats in the conflict spectrum have added to the complexities," he said.

The Army chief said that "grey zone actions and aggression by our adversaries is manifesting across multiple domains including the military i.e. on land, air and maritime space".

"Proxy war is one such manifestation of this threat that we have been combating for years now," he added.

Consequent to all these developments, the battle space has become more "complex, contested and lethal and shall remain so in the future", General Pande said.

"Amidst this complicated canvas that I just described, our nation continues to rise. As a nation, we have envisioned, and taken up the resolve to emerge as a developed nation when we celebrate our centenary milestone," he said.

India has set the vision of becoming a developed a nation by 2047 when it completes 100 years since independence.

"The aspirations of rising India shall span across expanding strategic horizons. The foremost implications for us therefore is to ensure that the nation's security is not impacted in any way so that the progress continues unabated," General Pande said.

"To secure our national interests, we need to possess commensurate capabilities, which require a continuous progression and a focused approach from where we are today," he added.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.