Core Concerns in Indian Defence and the Imperatives for Reforms

Vinod Misra

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India's current defence imperatives transcend the ideeological 'defence vs. butter' debate. Even while there may be no profound existential concerns, the geo-political reality of a deeply troubled neighbourhood, long legacy of border disputes with neighbours in the north and west and a widening spectrum of potential warfare from conventional and strategic to the asymmetric can be ignored at our own peril. Given the current capability gaps and infrastructure inadequacies, India requires a far more focussed pursuit of the objective of comprehensive national power with an optimal blend of fully deterrent state-of-the-art and readily deployable capabilities potentially on more than one front. Likely out-of-area contingencies and our legitimate aspirations as an emerging regional and world power further fuel this need.

While there has been a significant stepping up of the public discourse in the recent years on the myriad concerns in defence, there is precious little in the public realm on the hard core issues confronting defence decision - makers in critical areas such as the long range geo-strategic environment, higher defence management and civil military relations, defence industrialisation, acquisition, research and development, logistics, manpower, planning, financial management and oversight.

Possibly for the first time ever, this book seeks to put together the perceptions, views and recommendations of a host of past practitioners at the highest level from the civil and military bureaucracy who have had some unmatched insights into the complex world of Indian Defence and its decision-making structures and processes. For obvious reasons, the cause of reliable, efficient, and affordable defence brooks no further delay in terms of a potent capability basket encompassing the land, sea, air, space and cyber-space domains. This would call for some long overdue reforms covering organisations, policies and processes to enhance professionalism, synergies arising from jointness, drastically curtail decision - making time frames, and, above all, enforce accountability for the attainment of stated goals. Hopefully, this book would contribute in some measure to this worthy task.

About the Editor

Vinod Misra served as Secretary (Defence Finance) in the Ministry of Defence till mid 2007.Later, he headed the Defence Expenditure Review Committee in 2008/09, which suggested comprehensive reforms in defence resource management. Over 2008/09 till 2012, he served on the boards of Oil India and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) as an independent director. The 'BrahMos' missile programme was also reviewed in-depth by a committee under his chairmanship in 2010-11. Since 2008, he is closely associated with the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) as a distinguished fellow. He is currently also the Visitor's nominee on the Executive Council of the Delhi University.

India’s External Security Environment and its Impact on Indian Defence

- Kanwal Sibal

The Conundrum of Indian Defence and Civil-Military Relationship

- Shekhar Dutt

Roots of Civil-Military Schism in India: The Need for Synergy

- Arun Prakash

India’s Defence Organisation: A Re-Orientation and the Need for Change

- Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy

Higher Defence Organisation and The Pursuit of Jointness

- Deepak Kapoor

Defence Planning in India at Crossroads

- Amiya Kumar Ghosh

Defence Planning, Programming and Budgeting: An Agenda for Reform

- Narendra Singh Sisodia and Amit Cowshish

Defence R&D

- A Sivathanu Pillai

Acquisition in Defence

- Vinod Misra

Strengthening the Defence Industrial Base in India

- Ravindra Gupta

Defence Budget: Constraints and Capability Building

- Vinay Kaushal

Financial Management in Defence

- Amit Cowshish

Defence Manpower

- Satish Nambiar

Logistics and Supply Chain Management

- Pramod Vasant Athawale

India’s Offset Policy: The Way Forward

- Satya Narayan Misra

Arms Trade Offset: Global Trend and ‘Best’ Practices

- Laxman Kumar Behera

Oversight in Defence

- Vinod Rai

Oversight for Defence: Mechanism, Objectives and Methodology

- Pratyush Sinha

Annexures

- Vinay Kaushal and Laxman Kumar Behera

Index