There is no rationale to start another Officers Training Academy at Gaya when the existing one at Chennai is under-subscribed by 55 percent.
Earlier this week, Defence Minister Mr. A. K. Antony informed the Parliament about the pattern of cadet intake from 2006 to 2009 in various military academies, viz., the National Defence Academy [NDA], the [...]
What is the Indian government policy on defence firms employing retired service officers?
This paragraph from a must-read piece in the USA Today — about retired senior military officers doubling up as mentors with the defence services to earn money while simultaneously working for defence manufacturing firms — spells out US government policy on employing retired [...]
The problem of corruption at higher ranks in the defence services can only be tackled by systemic reform.
Law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people. It must also reach men who possess themselves of great power. ~Robert Jackson
Indian Express has a news story highlighting corruption cases at the top echelons [...]
There are huge problems with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence.
The latest Tailpiece of the weekly Delhi Confidential column in the Indian Express has this juicy tid-bit.
Honourable members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence are having a tough time trying to cope with JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda. The reason: Every single verbal [...]
An asset and a liability.
Indian army has been Indian barely for 62 years now. It was the British Indian Army for at least twice that period. It should come as no surprise then that the Indian army still continues to draw most of its values and traditions from the British army.
One such quality is what [...]
But the military laws are unsuited to a modern, democratic India.
Indian army is ignoring the Supreme Court guidelines on sexual harassment in workplace because it believes that the Army act takes precedence over any such SC advisories. Perhaps, army is correct in strict legalistic terms but it is certainly not ethically right. The Army act, [...]
A pointer towards solving officer shortages in the Indian armed forces.
Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker:
Social scientists distinguish between what are known as treatment effects and selection effects. The Marine Corps, for instance, is largely a treatment-effect institution. It doesn’t have an enormous admissions office grading applicants along four separate dimensions of toughness and intelligence. [...]
This is a symptom of the malaise.
In a sense, the procurement of golf carts from operational funds by an army commander is an old story now. It has travelled to far corners of the world, being reported about in The Times of London and The Irish Times, among others. For all the attention the story [...]
It was about central pay scales, not about military and its personnel.
[This guest post has been penned by this blog's favourite guest blogger, BeeCee. His earlier guest posts on the SCPC imboglio are here, here and here.]
The debate on the Civil vs Military aspects of the VI CPC report, it seems, will continue to simmer, [...]
The officer who lost an eye at The Oberoi.
Here is a heart-wrenching tale of Captain Amitendra Kumar Singh, a National Security Guard commando, who lost sight in his left eye while fighting the terrorists inside the Oberoi Hotel. While the apathy of the nation towards the war-heroes is an oft-repeated story, his angst-ridden bitterness towards [...]
Sans a national strategy review.
From the Report of the Estimates Committee of the Parliament in 1992-93 (Paragraph 1.65):
The committee is apprised that the force level under the Ministry of Defence is determined by the dynamic perspective of the security scenario coupled with the annual availability of resources within the plan period, competing demands of other [...]
Lessons from the Russian experience.
When the industrial-age armed forces of a welfare state undergo reform and restructuring, the pain is felt by the large number of officers made redundant by the exercise.
The plan seeks to transform an impoverished, unwieldy conscript army built to fight a protracted war in Europe into a more nimble, battle-ready force [...]
By supporting the BJP in general elections.
Now that election results are here, it would be clear to most people that the unequivocal call by an ex-servicemen organisation asking the military veterans to vote for the BJP was grossly misplaced. The reasons are simple.
Firstly, it placed the ex-servicemen organisation in an enviable position of having opposed [...]
[Another post from this blog's favourite guest blogger, BeeCee. His take on internal issues of the defence services is obviously triggered by Karan Thapar's views on the promises made to the service personnel and veterans in its manifesto by the BJP, and the vow of a veterans organisation to support the BJP.]
On personnel & accountability [...]
India must secure its interests, not carp over imagined grievances.
Richard Holbrooke, during his recent visit to Pakistan and India, has said all the right things: the US will not mediate on Kashmir, India is not a part of his mandate and Obama administration is looking at India to play a much wider regional role. None [...]
Paul Yingling’s talk at CGSC is a must-read.
As matters stand now, a private who loses a rifle suffers far greater consequences than a general who loses a war.
When he made this statement in his famous piece titled A Failure in Generalship, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yingling of the US army got noticed by most people the [...]
Indian defence services can emulate this innovative idea.
The problems of recruiting and retention are a challange for the armed forces the world over. Due to the current economic downturn, these challenges seem to have lost their urgency, at least in the Indian context. But the US Navy has used this opportunity to try out an [...]
Harvest now. Failed crop later.
For some journalists dealing with the armed forces, it is a time to splice the mainbrace. Sidharth Mishra, writing in today’s Pioneer, rejoices over the fact that the global economic meltdown and its impact on the Indian private sector has again made the defence services a very attractive career.
May sound mischievous [...]
[BeeCee, who has done a few guest posts on this blog earlier, is back with his take on the issue of civil-military relations. He frames the debate in the context of three topics much in the news recently.]
Three recent developments prompt me to write these observations that may well reflect the reality of India’s administrative [...]
…between a modern and a feudal army.
The easiest and quickest path into the esteem of traditional military authorities is by the appeal to the eye, rather than to the mind. The `polish and pipeclay’ school is not yet extinct, and it is easier for the mediocre intelligence to become an authority on buttons, than on [...]
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