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  • Amit Cowshish

    Consultant
    Email: 
    amitcowshish@gmail.com
    Phone: 
    +91 11 2671 7983
    Archive data: Person was Consultant at IDSA

    Amit Cowshish retired from the Indian Defence Accounts Service in 2012 after serving for thirty five years in various capacities in the Defence Accounts Department. He served on deputation with the Ministry of Defence first as Under Secretary and later as Additional Financial Advisor & Joint Secretary and Financial Advisor (Acquisition) & Additional Secretary. He also served as Commissioner for Departmental Inquiries on deputation with the Central Vigilance Commission.

    He has wide experience in the field of financial management in defence. While serving on deputation with the Ministry of Defence, he handled Defence Planning, budget and procurements. He was associated with drafting of the Defence Procurement Manual 2009 and its 2010 supplement. He was also associated with review of financial powers delegated to the services. He was member secretary of the Defence Expenditure Review Committee (2009).

    He attended the Advanced Professional Programme in Public Administration at the Indian Institute of Public Administration and the National Security and Strategic Course at the National Defence College, New Delhi.

    He did is M.A. and M. Phil in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University and LL B from Delhi University. He holds a Post-graduate diploma in Alternative Dispute Resolution from the Indian Law Institute, New Delhi. He also holds pre-degree diplomas in Russian and Persian Languages from Jawaharlal Nehru University and a diploma in Urdu Language from National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language.

    Publications at IDSA

    Select Publications

    • Given that the Department of Expenditure will henceforth be the nodal department for issuing procurement related instructions in future, the Ministry of Defence must institute a system to promptly incorporate them in the MoD procurement manuals.

      August 29, 2022
      IDSA Comments
    • The success of the co-development-cum-production push in Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 would depend on the commercial viability of the co-developed product, apart from overcoming a host of conceptual and procedural challenges.

      August 17, 2022
      IDSA Comments
    • Micro and macro-level budgetary reforms are required to ensure optimum utilisation of the allocated resources for executing financially viable plans.

      August 02, 2022
      IDSA Comments
    • Strategic Analysis
    • The GFR 2017 permit individual ministries to issue detailed instructions to address the needs and complexities of procurement carried out by them. The question is whether those principles and rules come in the way of the Ministry of Defence evolving a more efficient procurement procedure that meets the armed forces’ aspirations.

      August 19, 2021
      IDSA Comments
    • More than seven decades after Pakistan’s creation, Mohammad Ali Jinnah continues to captivate both his critics and admirers. While the former excoriate him for exploiting religion to achieve his goal, the latter hail him as the Qaid-e-Azam (Great Leader) who single-handedly secured a homeland for the Muslims of British India.

      Strategic Analysis
    • If existing procurement procedures are a hindrance in acquiring state-of-the-art defence materiel expeditiously, a case needs to be made out, based on demonstrable drawbacks of the existing system for a detailed blueprint of what system should replace it.

      August 10, 2021
      IDSA Comments
    • Defence of India is a multi-dimensional responsibility involving coordination with not only organisations within MoD, but also several external departments and agencies. Irrespective of whether the subject of defence of India is assigned to DoD or DMA, it is the defence minister who is responsible for the subjects allocated to the ministry.

      July 22, 2021
      IDSA Comments
    • There is a need to formulate a composite policy that focuses on indigenisation in high priority technology areas, shedding the notion that it must necessarily result in savings. A more modest and focussed mission-mode approach to indigenisation can produce better results.

      July 09, 2021
      IDSA Comments
    • The Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP 2020), which supersedes the Defence Procurement Procedure 2016 (DPP 2016), is a sincere effort by the Ministry of Defence to improve the capital procurement procedure.

      November 20, 2020
      Issue Brief
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