Union Budget 2009 and what it means for foreign affairs and defence
In the July 20th issue of Outlook magazine I point out that the Budget has the good, the bad and the ugly for strategic affairs. An edited version of the following appeared in print.
First the good: the UPA government used the Union Budget to [...]
Planned spending, informed planning
Sushant K Singh and Ramavtar Yadav make a case for police reforms in today’s Mint.
Social and economic security needs to be immediately adopted as one of the Plan sectors by the commission. This sector should set national objectives and provide assured resources—funds, manpower, equipment and training—for policing and encompass crimes, crimogens, criminal [...]
Regarding freezing defence expenditure
Your decision to freeze Pakistan’s defence expenditure as “a show of its desire for peace with neighbours” is welcome. We even hope that you will someday be able to control that budgetary head.
You also hoped “to see a reciprocal gesture from our neighbour for the sake of peace and prosperity of [...]
Listen to the voice of the revolution
Pragati will be available in a specially produced podcast edition, from April 7th onwards. It will provide a broad overview of the articles in the month’s issue of Pragati. Mohit Satyanand, your host, will read out key segments from the articles. You’ll be able to listen to the podcast [...]
Issue Contents
PERSPECTIVE
The unkindest cut Salil Tripathi
The loan waiver keeps poor farmers where they are
Waiver of mass debt Vijay Mahajan
How that money could have been used to really change lives
Concerning senior citizens Mukul G Asher &? Deepa Vasudevan
Budget 2008-09 and the implications for a greying population
Waiting for modernisation Sushant K Singh & Nitin Pai
The dismal state of long term [...]
Defence budgeting and procurement processes need a overhaul
That the procurement process is holding back defence modernisation is relatively well-known. In today’s op-ed in Mint, Sushant and I throw more light on another aspect: only a small fraction of India’s defence budget is available for modernisation.
Excerpts:
Putting resources to better use.
Effective use of money by the [...]
The defence ministry surrendered 10% of its capital allocations last year
In the Union Budget 2008-09, unveiled by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in parliament today, the budgeted capital outlay for defence services has been increased from Rs 41,922 crore to Rs 48,007 crore, by around 14.5%.
That’s good news for military modernisation. If the albatross-like procurement [...]
War is too important a business to leave to the generals alone (notwithstanding Nehru-Krishna Menon)
In an editorial earlier this month The Pioneer called for the Army to be left alone, for there ‘are other ways to save money’. It is an excellent example of good intentions but poor policy thinking.
For some time now strategic affairs [...]
Time to stop putting the defence rupee in so many different pigeonholes
In our op-ed in Mint, Sushant and I argue that to convert defence outlays into outcomes, it is necessary to consolidate defence expenditure under one head.
Read on…
The guns and butter trade-off
It’s time for India to review its outdated practice of obfuscating the true [...]
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