Defence Budget

While the anguish over the state of modernization of the armed forces, the slow march towards achieving the capability for simultaneous action on two-fronts and rather feeble power projection on a global scale are understandable, what is not understandable is the expectation that the outlays for achieving these objectives would increase exponentially, irrespective of the state of the economy.

• Amit Cowshish
• February 27, 2013
• IDSA Comments

The prospects of allocation for the next year being less than the allocation for the current year are remote because of the immense implications it would entail, although it is likely that the growth in the budgetary allocation for the next fiscal may be less than what has been the case in the past.

• Amit Cowshish
• February 11, 2013
• IDSA Comments

It is almost customary to blame underutilization of the capital acquisition budget on defective planning, apathy of the civilian bureaucracy and procedural complexities. This view, however, does not take into account several factors that are external to the Ministry of Defence.

• Amit Cowshish
• December 26, 2012
• IDSA Comments

On the capital side, there may not be much of an adverse impact of reduction in allocation if the MMRCA contract gets pushed to the next year. On the revenue side, procurement of ammunition and other equipment as well as maintenance of legacy systems would be adversely affected.

• Amit Cowshish
• November 14, 2012
• IDSA Comments

An expansionary fiscal policy has been the prime mover for the large increase in the budget of the defence ministry, which would otherwise have come under severe budgetary pressure.

• Laxman Kumar Behera
• March 20, 2012
• IDSA Comments

The transformation from the comforts of outlay budgeting to an environment of accountability with outcome budgeting is difficult but not impossible. This re-engineering is essential as in the absence of outcome budgeting, budget management may be ineffective and ineffective budget management would weaken the Public Financial Management (PFM) system. A weakened PFM could even threaten established economic, social and political equilibriums.

• Sanjeev Mishra
• April 2011
• Journal of Defence Studies

The Indian Navy (IN) has one Naval Dockyard (ND) each at Mumbai and Visakhapatnam and one Naval Ship Repair Yard (NSRY) each at Kochi, Port Blair and Karwar. The repair and refit requirements of IN ships and submarines are collectively met by the above mentioned repair agencies. NDs have the capacity and capability to handle Major Refits (MR). The Operational-cum-Refit cycle of each ship / class of ship is promulgated by IHQ MoD (N) from time to time.

• Gaurav Gautan , KA Sureshan
• April 2011
• Journal of Defence Studies

The defence budget for 2011-12 has not been unduly impacted by the fiscal consolidation process, and reflects the MoD’s ability to spend resources within the stipulated time.

• Laxman Kumar Behera
• March 07, 2011
• IDSA Comments

Ground reality rather than fiscal prudence should guide the Finance Minister while finalising the defence budget for 2011-12.

• Laxman Kumar Behera
• February 23, 2011
• IDSA Comments

While India’s latest defence budget has no doubt catered for a sizeable capital component, it may be prudent to reduce costs by switching to more affordable programmes.

• Ramesh Phadke
• May 07, 2010
• IDSA Comments