The best of policies and procedures can come to naught because of indecisiveness in decision-making. There is little in DPP 2016 that addresses the problems which beset decision-making in the MoD.

• Amit Cowshish
• March 30, 2016
• IDSA Comments

Calculations reveal that the capital expenditure has been cut primarily to accommodate the rise in salary and pension bills arising out of the implementation of OROP scheme and the Seventh Central Pay Commission recommendations.

• Laxman Kumar Behera
• March 22, 2016
• IDSA Comments

The two heads of expenditure which have witnessed significant growth in the defence budget 2016-17 are the salary component of the armed forces and the defence pensions.

• Laxman Kumar Behera
• March 03, 2016
• Issue Brief

It is time India devised appropriate tactics to meet the current threat. It is imperative that the armed forces prepare for ‘the most likely scenario’ rather than ‘the worst case scenario’. But to be fair, this can only be done when there exists a clear national military policy/strategy.

• Ramesh Phadke
• March 02, 2016
• IDSA Comments

The defence budget for the next fiscal has been completely restructured, making it difficult to make like-to-like comparisons. The growth in the defence budget is bound to disappoint the strategic community, notwithstanding the economic factors that may be responsible for it

• Amit Cowshish
• March 02, 2016
• IDSA Comments

The underutilisation of allocated funds suggest that the meagre funds available in the modernisation budget after catering for committed liabilities have not been fully utilised. Thus, a thorough introspection for better expenditure management is needed.

• Vinay Kaushal
• March 01, 2016
• IDSA Comments

While taking stock of the acquisition proposals and projects is critical for bringing in efficiency in defence procurements, the focus on statistics dissembles some important issues.

• Amit Cowshish
• February 25, 2016
• IDSA Comments

Sustaining and building defence capabilty is a continuous process. It requires both adequate budget allocations and full, efficient and judicous utilisation of the allocated budget. This does not appear to have happened in the immediate past and the trend appears to continue in the current year.

• Vinay Kaushal
• February 23, 2016
• Issue Brief

The Defence Acquisition Council has decided to introduce a new category of Indian Designed, Developed and Manufactured equipment. This will be the most preferred category, ahead of ‘Buy (Indian)’, which presently occupies the pride of place.

• Amit Cowshish
• January 20, 2016
• IDSA Comments

India’s defence modernisation presents enormous opportunities for the Japanese defence industry, which until recently concentrated exclusively on the domestic market in order to demonstrate Japan’s commitment to peace.

• Titli Basu
• December 29, 2015
• IDSA Comments