Amit Cowshish

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  • Mr Amit Cowshish is a former Financial Advisor (Acquisition), Ministry of Defence and former Distinguished Fellow, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. Click here for Detailed Profile

    Standing Committee on Defence (16th Lok Sabha): Striking Old Notes on Debut

    Three months after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was swept to power at the centre in the general elections held in April–May 2014 to the 16th Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian Parliament), the Standing Committee on Defence was constituted under the chairmanship of Major General B.C. Khanduri (Retd.), former Chief Minister of the northern state of Uttarakhand and a prominent member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is the main constituent of the NDA.

    April 2015

    An enigma called defence technology fund

    An enigma called defence technology fund

    There has been much speculation since 2011 about who is going to manage the proposed fund, how is it to be different from the already existing technology related heads in the defence budget, and how will the amount set aside for the purpose be utilized.

    August 27, 2014

    Giving Aero India 2015 a Make-in-India Touch

    Giving Aero India 2015 a Make-in-India Touch

    There is an urgent need to conceptualise a policy framework as to what Make-in-India implies so far as defence production is concerned and how it is different from the existing policy framework.

    February 18, 2015

    Making India a Defence Manufacturing Hub

    Making India a Defence Manufacturing Hub

    While the government is widely seen as investor-friendly, investment decisions, however, are made on more tangible considerations – ease of doing business, security of investment and intellectual property rights, and returns on investment.

    October 07, 2014

    Dysfunctional Operating Environment in Defence: The Problem

    Dysfunctional Operating Environment in Defence: The Problem

    Widespread problems have made the operating environment ‘dysfunctional and inefficient’. Some of this is on account of inscrutable issues like ‘integration of the services with the MoD’ or ‘civil-military relations’ but, in large part, the immediate problem lies with MoD’s inability to resolve more mundane issues.

    October 21, 2014

    Dysfunctional Operating Environment in Defence: The Malaise

    Dysfunctional Operating Environment in Defence: The Malaise

    There is no single agency in MoD to deal with these issues holistically. Generally, matters related to administrative powers are processed separately for each service by the administrative wings concerned with little concern for commonality.

    October 27, 2014

    Dysfunctional Operating Environment in Defence: Removing the Cobwebs

    Dysfunctional Operating Environment in Defence:  Removing the Cobwebs

    The effort to set right the operating environment has to start with creating a mechanism to review the existing devolution of power comprehensively based on clearly defined principles and not in an ad hoc manner.

    November 05, 2014

    Avro-replacement programme hits air pocket

    Avro-replacement programme hits air pocket

    Replacement of the Avro is an approved requirement. Scrapping the on-going process could delay acquisition of the transport aircraft by at least a year or two as it would inevitably involve revisiting the qualitative requirements (QRs) before restarting the tendering process.

    November 25, 2014

    Rejig of Defence Budget 2014-15?

    Rejig of Defence Budget 2014-15?

    If reports about the diversion of INR 13,000 crore from the capital segment of the defence budget to the revenue heads are true, it is an indication of the growing strain on the revenue budget.

    January 23, 2015

    LUH Acquisition Programme: Which Way is it Headed?

    LUH Acquisition Programme: Which Way is it Headed?

    It is difficult to visualise how the Russian offer to make LUH in India could be actualised unless the government invokes ‘strategic considerations’ for making it in India or signs an inter-governmental agreement for that purpose.

    December 15, 2014

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