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| Archive data: Person was Research Fellow at IDSA till September 2020 |
Dr. Laxman Kumar Behera joined MP-IDSA in September 2006. He specialises on issues related to Arms Procurement, Defence Offsets, Defence Industry, Military Spending, and Export Control. Dr. Behera has authored numerous policy-relevant research publications. His book Indian Defence Industry: An Agenda for Making in India provides a comprehensive analysis of India’s evolving arms manufacturing sector. Dr. Behera has given numerous talks on defence, security and finance related issues in prestigious training and academic institutes, including College of Defence Management, National Academy of Defence Production, National Institute of Financial Management and Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. Dr. Behera was closely associated with several high level Committees set up by the Ministry of Defence to examine Defence Acquisition and Defence Expenditure. He worked as a Consultant to the Taskforce on Defence Modernisation and Self-reliance, constituted by the National Security Council Secretariat. The Report, presented to the Prime Minister, had been the basis for several reforms carried through the Defence Procurement Procedures (DPP). He has been part of three IDSA study teams that prepared reports for the Seventh Central Pay Commission; Expenditure Management Commission, Ministry of Finance; and Director General (Acquisition), MoD.
Background Paper
Definition, Forms and Types of Offsets Offsets
India’s Defence Offset Policy 2008
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) recently issued a new set of rules for the procurement of arms, ammunition and other defence related products and services. The rule book, known as Defence Procurement Procedure 2008 (DPP 2008), has revised, among others, the offset policy that was first promulgated in 2005 and subsequently revised in 2006. The revised offset policy which retains the earlier minimum 30 per cent offset requirements in defence imports of Rs. 300 crore or more has added a provision of offset banking, besides enlisting a number of categories of defence products.
Tata’s Forays into Defence Production
In early May 2008 Tata Group of India and Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd (IAI) signed an agreement to establish a joint venture (JV) in India to develop, produce and support defence products such as missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), radars, electronic warfare (EW) systems and homeland security (HLS) systems. The agreement is in sync with Tata’s broader objective of becoming a “lead system integrator” in the Indian private sector, by consolidating its own resources, diversifying into various fields of production and forging partnerships with major global defence companies.
India’s Affordable Defence Spending
Defence expenditure is an important component of national security and every country allocates a significant portion of its resources for this purpose. However, given the scarcity of resources and the competing demands from other sectors, a nation’s ability to meet all its Defence requirements is not unlimited. Even the United States, the only military superpower, is unable to afford many of its major programmes, forcing it to scale down the number of items to be procured.
Assessing India's Defence Offset Policy
Chair: Thomas Mathew
Discussants: Vinod Kumar Misra & Satyajeet Rajan
India’s Defence Budget 2008-09
Union Budget 2008-09 has allocated Rs. 105,600 crores for India’s Defence. Crossing the one lakh barrier for the first time, and accounting for nearly 14.1 per cent of total central government expenditure, the Defence Budget looks quite impressive (see Box). But when seen in the context of India’s expanding interests, this allocation remains as moderate as ever. Moreover, an in-depth analysis reveals problems in defence and budgetary management, none of which show signs of abating.
Private Sector Participation in Indian Defence Industry
India opened up its defence industry to the private sector in May 2001, in a move to enhance the country’s ‘defence preparedness’. To give further impetus to this policy, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) came out with new policy measure related to the concepts of private Industry Leaders [or Raksha Udyog Ratnas (RURs)] “Make” procedure, and defence offsets, in its 2006 Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP). With these policy initiatives, the government’s focus seems to have shifted towards the private sector as far as achieving its long-cherished goal of ‘self-reliance’ is concerned.
Rising Cost of the Global War on Terror
The Global War on Terror (GWOT), now into its sixth year, has become one of the most expensive wars in American history. GWOT covers three military operations: Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), which broadly covers Afghanistan but ranges from the Philippines to Djibouti; Operation Noble Eagle (ONE), which is meant to provide better security for US military bases and enhanced homeland security; and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) which began with the build-up of troops for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The cost of these operations has phenomenally increased over the years.
Affordable Defence Spending: The Indian Experience
Discussants: Amit Cowshish & G. Balachandran
Indian Defence Acquisition: Time for Change
The latest Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) Performance Report on Defence Services (No. 4 of 2007) has once again exposed the problems involved in Indian defence acquisition. The report has been critical virtually of all the processes of the acquisition cycle, from planning to the formulation of Qualitative Requirements (QRs), vendor selection, conduct of trial and evaluations and processes of induction.