Defence Budget

The orientation of the existing administrative set up in Service Headquarters and in departments under the Ministry of Defence is to plan for the utilization of defence budget allocation. They are not in a position to pay attention to the aspect of defence receipts.

• Arvind Kadyan
• November 05, 2009
• IDSA Comments

The defence budget for the financial year 2009-2010, even though in terms of percentage increase appears large, yet it is not actually so. There has generally been a mismatch between the funds asked by the MOD and those allotted by the MOF. The absence of indication of likely availability of funds impacts adversely the defence planning process. Of late, there has been improvement in the ratio of revenue to capital expenditure, but for a healthy ratio there is a need to increase the defence budget as a percentage of the GDP.

• Vinod Anand
• October 2009
• Journal of Defence Studies

India has established eight Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) whose responsibility is to provide the Armed Forces state-of-the-art equipments and at the same time enhance country's self-reliance in defence production. However the performance of these Undertakings is not up to the mark, resulting in import of arms worth billions of dollars every year. A deeper insight into DPSUs' production profile reveals that most of them are over-dependent on external sources for the production needs, and have a very low labour productivity level, negligible export, and a low R&D base.

• Laxman Kumar Behera
• October 2009
• Journal of Defence Studies

The present global economic crisis has slowed down the growth of the Indian economy, affecting among others, the fiscal situation and the revenue mobilisation potential of the central government. Defence being one of the largest recipients of central government expenditure, the present crisis casts a doubt on the adequacy of future resources. This commentary discusses some major options that India’s Ministry of Defence needs to consider in order to withstand the likely resource constraints in the coming years.

• Laxman Kumar Behera
• May 26, 2009
• IDSA Comments

A HQ IDS driven integrated approach, for formulation of a synergised perspective plan and five year Defence Plans is the only method of achieving optimal inter–Service allocation of funds.

• Vickas Kapur
• April 2009
• Journal of Defence Studies

The evolution of the concept of Outcome Budget is traced and the linkage between defence budgeting and defence planning in India is examined. Also the concerns arising out of the present system before examining the scope of introducing Outcome Budget in India.

• S. C. Pandey
• April 2009
• Journal of Defence Studies

The establishment of an FMIS has become an important benchmark for the country's budget reform agenda, often regarded as a precondition for achieving effective management of the budgetary resources.

• Praveen Kumar
• April 2009
• Journal of Defence Studies

The defence planning process attempts to match the budgetary resources likely to be made available for the requirement to establish the defence capability which is necessary to face the threats and challenges.

• R. B. Kalra
• April 2009
• Journal of Defence Studies

A healthy public discourse could infuse much needed fresh ideas in the management of huge defence outlays. This would be possible only if budget outlays are presented in a demystified format.

• Amit Cowshish
• April 2009
• Journal of Defence Studies

Ideally, resource allocation needs to be based on the strategic goals to be achieved. Presently, we follow incremental budget process, which is widely accepted as suboptimal. Therefore, there is a need to find a more suitable model to replace the existing one.

• Kishore Kumar Khera
• April 2009
• Journal of Defence Studies