Amit Cowshish
Who is Responsible for Defence of India?
The creation of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) as the fifth department of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) last year, with Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Bipin Rawat concurrently…
Increase in FDI Cap Alone Not Enough for Defence Sector
As a part of the policy reforms to repair the pandemic-affected economy, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced on May 16 that the prevailing limit of 49 per cent on…
Design and Development of Equipment by DRDO, DPSUs and Ordnance Factories
Paragraph 72 in Chapter II of the Defence Procurement Procedure 2016 (DPP 2016) sets out the procedure for awarding design and development (D&D) projects to the Defence Research and Development…
Making the Right to Information (RTI) work in Defence
Disposing of an appeal late last month, the Central Information Commission (CIC) advised the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to ensure probity and accountability in defence procurements. Though the advisory is…
13th Five-Year Defence Plan (2017-22) – A re-run of the past
The 13th five-year defence plan (2017-22) envisages an allocation of Rs 26,83,924 crore for the armed forces.1 This includes Rs 13,95,271 crore under the revenue segment and the remainder for defraying…
Fog clears over industrial licensing for defence industry but questions remain
The notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on May 19, 20171 delegating the power to issue licences for the manufacture and sale etc. of arms and ammunition to…
10 Questions the Standing Committee on Defence needs to ask MoD
Restructuring of the demands for grant of various ministries, including the Ministry of Defence (MoD) last year, and further tinkering with the MoD’s demands this year is inexplicable, to say…
Would a Non-Lapsable Defence Modernisation Fund Work?
One idea that keeps resurfacing in discussions on the defence budget is the creation of a non-lapsable defence modernisation fund (DMF) to harvest the money that remains unspent, especially under…
Defence Budget 2017-18: Chugging Along
Defence was not blanked out in the budget speech this time, as it happened last year, but while announcing the allocation for defence, the finance minister avoided any mention of…
Defence Budget 2017-18: Beyond the Numbers
With the presentation of the annual budget for the next fiscal being just a few days away, there is no point in second guessing the size of the defence appropriation.…
Making it Palatable – Managing Food Supply in the Armed Forces
Campaigning at Kairana for the forthcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi is reported to have said: “PM Narendra Modi who applauds surgical…
Integrating Defence Plans with Niti Aayog’s Long Term Vision
A new dimension has been added to the many challenges already being faced by Indian defence planners. In an interesting development, Niti Aayog is thinking of integrating defence and internal…
What the Standing Committee on Defence can do to improve the state of defence preparedness
For the past several years, the Standing Committee on Defence (SCoD), responsible, among other things, for examining the detailed demands for grants presented by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to…
