Amit Cowshish

DefExpo 2018: Making India a Defence Manufacturing Hub and an Exporter of Arms

The challenge lies in demonstrating to potential importers that India, currently the world’s largest arms importer, has the capacity to manufacture and export the equipment required by their armed forces.

Amit Cowshish |
April 09, 2018 |
IDSA Comments

Promises Galore in the Draft Defence Production Policy 2018

The promises contained in the recently released draft are so intertwined that a comprehensive action plan would be required to implement all of them almost simultaneously for achieving the policy objective.

Amit Cowshish |
April 02, 2018 |
IDSA Comments

Cabinet Decides to Redefine MSMEs – Defence Sector to Benefit

The new system of classifying enterprises based on annual turnover will be more reliable, transparent and objective as the qualifying criteria will be verifiable with reference to the data available in the Goods and Services Tax network.

Amit Cowshish |
March 13, 2018 |
IDSA Comments

Problems of Costing in Defence Procurements

The benchmark price could be different from the initial cost estimate because, in many cases, the negotiation stage is reached several years after in-principle approval.

Amit Cowshish |
November 20, 2017 |
IDSA Comments

Standing Committee on Defence’s Prescription for increasing Capital Budget May Not Work

The Thirty-first Report of the Standing Committee on Defence (SCoD)1 was submitted to Parliament on 9 March 2017. The report examined the capital outlay for the defence services for the year 2017–18, procurement policy of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and defence planning. A glance through the report showed that, apart from a rather sketchy analysis of these issues, the committee has only ended up making hackneyed observations and recommendations that have been made repeatedly in the past without much success.

Need for Sector-Specific Ease-of-Doing Business Indices

Sector-specific micro parameters that have a bearing on the ease of doing business need to be identified and quantified.

Amit Cowshish |
October 05, 2017 |
IDSA Comments

Acquisition of single-engine fighter aircraft – A few suggestions to expedite the procurement process

MoD can leapfrog many of the 11 stages in the procurement programme by taking the measures outlined to fulfil the urgent requirements of the Air Force.

Amit Cowshish |
September 26, 2017 |
IDSA Comments

Making the Right to Information (RTI) work in Defence

Adhering to the RTI Act in letter and spirit will lead to more responsible decision-making, greater accountability, and more credibility to the actions of the MoD.

Amit Cowshish |
August 21, 2017 |
IDSA Comments

13th Five-Year Defence Plan (2017-22) – A Re-Run of the Past

Achieving the intended outcomes of the 13th five-year defence plan is critically dependent on the ability of the Ministry of Finance to increase the defence budget by at least 100 per cent from next year onward.

Amit Cowshish |
July 31, 2017 |
IDSA Comments

Need for nurturing the ‘Make’ projects

It would be a bold gesture if MoD decides to categorise all development projects under Make-II. This will send a strong message to the industry and to the nation about MoD’s earnestness to promote private sector participation.