The defence budget for the financial year 2009-2010, even though in terms of percentage increase appears large, yet it is not actually so. There has generally been a mismatch between the funds asked by the MOD and those allotted by the MOF. The absence of indication of likely availability of funds impacts adversely the defence planning process. Of late, there has been improvement in the ratio of revenue to capital expenditure, but for a healthy ratio there is a need to increase the defence budget as a percentage of the GDP.

Wars are not fought only by the armed forces, but by the entire nation, the government and all its organs, the media and the people in an integrated and unified manner. The Kargil war was one such event that unified the nation. The political, diplomatic and military insights gained during the conflict have tremendous learning value for our politico-military structures and processes. It was with this purpose of learning lessons and sharpening our higher defence management that the Kargil Review Committee was formed in the aftermath of the Kargil War of 1999.

Militaries of major states in the international system have been responding to the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) debate, mainly to the technological and operational concepts propounded by the US, even though most of them particularly in Asia continue to grapple with its full import. First off the blocks in Asia has been China. Given the salience of the American threat perspective in any Taiwan-centric conflict scenario, it has identified rapid development in high technology with Informaion Technology(IT) at its core as the means to bring about revolutionary changes in the military field as a strategic and operational necessity to meet the challenge.