Amit Cowshish

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Archive data: Person was Consultant at IDSA
Amit Cowshish retired from the Indian Defence Accounts Service in 2012 after serving for thirty five years in various capacities in the Defence Accounts Department. He served on deputation with the Ministry of Defence first as Under Secretary and later as Additional Financial Advisor & Joint Secretary and Financial Advisor (Acquisition) & Additional Secretary. He also served as Commissioner for Departmental Inquiries on deputation with the Central Vigilance Commission.
He has wide experience in the field of financial management in defence. While serving on deputation with the Ministry of Defence, he handled Defence Planning, budget and procurements. He was associated with drafting of the Defence Procurement Manual 2009 and its 2010 supplement. He was also associated with review of financial powers delegated to the services. He was member secretary of the Defence Expenditure Review Committee (2009).
He attended the Advanced Professional Programme in Public Administration at the Indian Institute of Public Administration and the National Security and Strategic Course at the National Defence College, New Delhi.
He did is M.A. and M. Phil in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University and LL B from Delhi University. He holds a Post-graduate diploma in Alternative Dispute Resolution from the Indian Law Institute, New Delhi. He also holds pre-degree diplomas in Russian and Persian Languages from Jawaharlal Nehru University and a diploma in Urdu Language from National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language.
Publications at IDSA

Consultant
Email: amitcowshish[at]gmail[dot]com
Phone: +91 11 2671 7983

Publication

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Standing Committee on Defence’s Prescription for increasing Capital Budget May Not Work

The Thirty-first Report of the Standing Committee on Defence (SCoD)1 was submitted to Parliament on 9 March 2017. The report examined the capital outlay for the defence services for the year 2017–18, procurement policy of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and defence planning. A glance through the report showed that, apart from a rather sketchy analysis of these issues, the committee has only ended up making hackneyed observations and recommendations that have been made repeatedly in the past without much success.

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India–Israel Defence Trade: Issues and Challenges

To achieve strategically critical self-reliance in defence production, there needs to be a greater focus on co-development, co-production projects with important partners like Israel, with an essential emphasis on exports to third countries. For the full realisation of the potential of the India–Israel defence partnership, India on its part needs to strengthen elements of its procurement processes—including the proper implementation of laid down policies.