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Given the limited resource base and various competing demands, the MoD needs to work on a plan to optimise its allocated resources, rather than hoping to bridge its entire resource gap through additional funding from the Ministry of Finance.
Finetuning negotiation protocols and limiting the scope of negotiations could result in rapid conclusion of negotiations and contract finalisation.
The draft offset guidelines 2020, with revamped features, is a bold attempt at attracting technology and investment as well as promoting defence exports. However, the MoD may consider further refining some of the features of the revised guidelines.
Self-reliance in defence may be better realised if India’s military instrument were to be shaped by political guidance and geopolitical considerations instead of being carried away by the contemporary winds of COVID-19.
Although the new measures announced to fast-track the defence sector are significant, they do not add up to a comprehensive and overarching reforms package.
Inclusion of new clauses in the draft DPP-2020 and changes made in some of the existing ones are intended to make the SCD more comprehensive. However, there is a scope for bringing about textual clarity in the new as well as some of the existing clauses of the SCD, especially those which have been modified.
Redrafting the chapter on post-contract management, expatiating the concept of contract operating officers and clearly defining their role and responsibilities vis-à-vis the other agencies, could go a long way in serving its purpose.
It would be advisable to review the proposed offset guidelines keeping in view the feedback from the industry, especially the foreign vendors who carry the primary obligation to execute the offset contract, as also the legacy issues.
Smaller, smarter, potent and cheaper combat entities — linked and networked – will be at the heart of future warfare.
The inevitable reprioritisation of the central government’s expenditure in the coming union budgets would affect the resource allocations particularly for big ministries like the MoD, which will be forced to realign their business practices.
Given the rapidly rising pension liability in India and the concern expressed by the CDS, the experiences of the US and the UK could be useful in carrying out pension reforms in India.
The PPP model helps in improving the productivity and exploiting the full potential of asset-based services that base workshops provide. This is particularly relevant when there exists a competitive market and a benchmark for the army between an in-house and an external solution.
Considering the impending financial crunch due to the Covid-19 pandemic and uncertainty about allocations in the coming years, it is unlikely that the MoD will be able to launch many new procurement programmes under the new DPP any time soon.
The present crisis is as much of a challenge as an opportunity to infuse financial realism in defence planning and bring about concomitant reforms in the quickest possible timeframe.
Draft DPP 2020 provisions that continue to enable Capital Budget Revenue Procedure (CBRP) must be revisited.
Draft DPP-2020 marks a paradigm shift from the past in many respects. It contains several new features intended to hasten the procurement process and provide a further fillip to the Make in India initiative in defence.
There is a need to act quickly on the issue of force majeure to scotch all speculations about how the MoD is going to deal with the inevitable delay in performance of contracts and instil confidence among the vendors.
Reforming defence pension is no more an option but a compulsion considering its exponential growth in the past, which is likely to continue in the future if no reform is undertaken.
The European Union-3 and Iran are indeed up against formidable odds to keep the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) alive going forward.
The slowdown in economic growth not only seems to have cast its shadow on the allocation of the defence budget for 2020-21 but has also compounded the challenges for the country’s first CDS.
