DEFENSE CAPITAL PROCUREMENT AND NATIONAL THREAT PERCEPTION

1. Introduction - Army Navy Airforce carries out big ticket capital procurement based on Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) (Attached are Salient features of DPP as Annexure I). An important aspect of procurement process is Acceptance of Necessity (AoN). AoN is defined as follows - The services based on Staff Requirments makes a case before Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) and only after council accepts the necessity, a go ahead for procurement is given. This ensures acquisition is based on a national necessity and not subjective – an individual or head of institution and his whims and fancies. AoN has a validity of six months upwards depending upon which category acquisition is being made. A bench mark or ball park price is decided by a committee which is used not only for negotiations but also for projecting the budgetary requirements for the government to be included in making of the finance budget.

2. Present Scenario - Currently it is felt that this AoN (s) given to the services are not well coordinated. In the sense the capital procurement based on threat perception of each service is good, but better would be capital procurement for three services based upon National Threat Perception (NTP). This will ensure following – Capital procurement would be more focused for the NTP and any kind of repetitions or any kind of attempt at expanding individual service inventory due to false possessiveness would be curbed. By doing this defense capital procurements of our nation can save thousands of crores of National exchequer. There are many examples to suggest this, but only one example is given here other examples cannot be elucidated here due to security reasons.  

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2.    Smart Fighter Planes - (I am quoting the 4 b. para from a letter sent to Late Manohar Parrikar by me, Thankfully only 36 Rafales were decided to be inducted instead of 100 + as per earlier UPA regime program) --------“Along with technology the combat scene has under gone a change and military aviation has grown into a superior tactical and strategic arm. Present day fighter aircrafts carryout tasks of several aircrafts in one single modern fighter aircraft. With the fantastic capabilities, the emphasis is not on numbers but it is on ‘smart’ capability. This can be seen from the fact that the Royal Air Force and the French Air Force, undertake world-wide commitments with just 225 aircraft of two types each, the French Air Force with the Rafale and Mirage-2000 and the Royal Air Force with Tornadoes and Typhoons. Now we have got a smart plane in Rafale. I heard a former Chief of Air Staff saying they require more Rafales. It is natural to ask for moon as a head of organization. No head of the organization would sincerely trim the organization except for private entrepreneurs. For public funded organizations we see that they get inflated over a period of time. There are 42 squadrons of MIG now slowly getting depleted. No Chief of Air Staff would say that with smart fighter planes we don’t require so many squadrons. Every organisation on public money tends to grow and never try to scale down the force. As a head of the three services I urge to look into this aspect - do we really need all 42 squadrons. 42 Squadrons were when MIG of low technology fighter was available.  I know that cutting down number of squadrons is not easy and opposition may make mountain out of a mole. At the same time there is no need to equip all squadrons with costly smart planes. That way we can have a healthy mix of smart and not so smart planes.” 

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3.    Tailpiece –As a nation we need to curb the tendencies of expanding the kingdom beyond requirement of NTP by each service and therefore the necessity to coordinate the Capital Procurement efforts for all three services. Procurement necessities based upon NTP when viewed from a platform which is at least one level above the Army Navy Airforce services would result in optimum procurement and coordinated spending. This will effect in savings in thousands of crores of Inventory which is over and above that of NTP requirement just to satisfy individual services hunger to expand their domain.

4.    Proposal - The NSA or CDS should be the level to decide coordinated capital procurement based upon the NTP.

Annexure I

The Salient Points of DPP

(a)  Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan  (LTIPP) - Procurement or Acquisition process of capital equipment starts LTIPP - with a service (Army, Navy and Airforce) asking for an equipment based on its threat perception and how the services should remain fighting fit in the next fifteen years. This long term plan is then shared with Indian industries so that they can decide, plan and be ready to participate. There are medium term plans of 5 years and yearly plans. The inputs are given to Ministry of Defence (Finance) and Finance ministry for getting budgetary support in yearly finance bill (budget).

                                     

(b)  Request for Information (RFI) – The acquisition process starts with RFI as the equipment which Army Airforce and Navy requires is unique according to threat perception and not available in open market or even if available it has to be changed as per threat perception – typical example 1 – Single engine helicopter that can hover at 6 km altitude (for Siachen Glacier) and carry 150 kg of payload – such an helicopter is not easily available in world market so it has to be designed and developed. Example 2 Nuclear Biological and Chemical detector - not available in open market and where available, that country would not allow for export of such a detector due to their country’s policy or not available due to sanctions.

(c)  General / Air/ Naval Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR/ ASR/ NSQR) - is a classified document and is based on threat perception gathered, acquisitions made by adversaries, their development plans and information about contemporary technology and equipment available. The documents consist of specifications of equipment which the services would like to acquire to remain fighting fit. Broadly care is taken that single vendor situation is not arised.

(d)  Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) - The services based on Staff Requirments makes a case before Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) and only after council accepts the necessity goes ahead for procurement is given. This ensures acquisition is based on a national necessity and not subjective – an individual or head of institution and his whims and fancies. AoN has a validity of six months upwards depending upon which category acquisition is being made. A bench mark or ball park price is decided by a committee which is used not only for negotiations but also for projecting the budgetary requirements for the government to be included in making of the finance budget.

(e)  Request for Proposal (RFP) - is made and it is kept as open source so that anyone interested can peruse, participate and field their equipment. 

(f)   Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) - evaluates the equipment and out of many vendors some vendors who comply to the Staff requirements on paper are short listed. The short listed vendors are called for field trials and the claim is verified against the staff requirements.

(g)  Offsets - The key objective of the Defence Offset Policy is to leverage the capital acquisitions to develop Indian defence industry by fostering development of internationally competitive enterprises, augmenting capacity for Research, Design and Development related to defence products and encouraging development of synergistic sectors like civil aerospace and internal security. As per DPP for acquisitions more than 2000 cr, 30% of the cost of the project to be ploughed back to Indian businesses so that Indian business and industry grows. It is to be noted that in case of Rafale the offset is made 50%, which is more than stipulated in DPP. 

START A BETTER LIFE - 3 - PATH

Bhagwad Gita is in Sanskrit. Many experts have written about Bhagwad Gita and its purport. Numerous editions are available all over. Still there are misconceptions about Bhagwad Gita. These are summarized here –

Misconception	Reality
Bhagwad Gita is a religious book full of prayers deifying Hindu Gods and religion	Bhagwad Gita is philosophical and not religious. It is a practical guide to lead a life in a joyous manner.
Reading and practicing Bhagwad Gita at an early age would make youngsters shun ambition and therefore the drive to progress would diminish.	In opposite Bhagwad Gita makes them resilient, more practical towards the outcome of the effort and tells how to go towards the goal without burning out oneself  in order to achieve the goal
We think that it is not our right age to read and follow the path shown by Bhagwad Gita. Those who are believers may try to follow the path who in any case would end up being a pujari and not an accomplished person.	Bhagwad Gita tells what a successful life is. In life what is success and what is failure. It tells us what choice to be made in order to lead a joyful life.

To lead a joyful worthwhile life we need some anchoring, assurance, security, confidence and a way to lead the life. The way for this is shown in Bhagwad Gita. If we try to understand Bhagwad Gita, its meaning and inculcate its purport slowly in our life, we would emerge mentally stronger, happier and get sense of achievement at the end of the life.

For the youngsters, reading Bhagwad Gita in Sanskrit and to get its true purport is a challenge. There are so many interpretations and so many translations that the youngsters and current generation simply doesn’t have time, inclination and conviction to read Bhagwad Gita, to understand the Bhagwad Gita and practice the tenets preached in it.

Without making an attempt at knowing what is there in Bhagwad Gita, youngsters feel knowing about Bhagwad Gita is boring and uncool. It is like the key to happiness is with them but they don’t know it and they don’t believe that what they have is key to happiness. It is an awkward situation. They don’t know what Bhagwad Gita is all about so they are not inclined to read it, thinking it would be a boring religious book full of rituals out of sync with today. They don’t read so they don’t know what is there in it. They face day to day problems in life. Then to resolve the problems they start their quest. After whole round of external probing when they come to the latter half of their life they come to know about Bhagwad Gita but then the major time of their life has passed by so they let it go. Not because they would want to let it go but they just cannot then change their life style and their thinking. So they continue remaining in self-created depressed environment or continue struggling with emotions.

It is like a lady searching for a needle on a road and villagers helping her in finding the needle. From morning till evening they search without success. A senior person was passing by and he asked them “ what are u searching?” Villagers told him “They are helping the lady find a lost needle, but still are unable to find”. The wise asked “by the way where did you lose the needle?” The lady pointing towards her house answers “I lost it in my house”. Surprised, the wise person asks “you lost in your house and you all are searching here, you will never be able to find whatever you try.” When the wise asked, asks why there were searching there in broad day light instead of searching in the house he was told that they were searching there outside because there was enough sunlight here, there in the house it was all dark. To this the wise man says “You will never find it here unless you take the light inside your house where you have lost the needle”. Our whole life goes in searching happiness outside when actually it lies within. We never find it like that needle as we search at a wrong place.  

Here is the gist of Bhagwad Gita which can be easily read, understood and followed. There is also a guide what to follow, how to follow and what all to follow. Based on the temperament of the individuals, different paths are suggested to be followed which gives maximum benefits in terms of leading a happy life.

Bhagwad Gita has 18 Chapters and 700 shlokas but more about such details later. Considering the present times, societal norms and readers’ outlook relevant shlokas are interpreted. Only reading and understanding Bhagwad Gita would not give any benefits nor will it solve any problems. Only if we follow it with conviction, then will help to change our attitude and outlook towards life and that will get translated into joy and happiness. Keep reading………………….!

ARTICLE 370 - THE END OF BHASMASURA

Article 370

My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir – this was the book written in 1991 by Jagmohan Malhotra (known as Jagmohan) who was Lt Gov of Delhi and later Governor of J & K from 1984 to 1989.

He had given the exact problem of Kashmir, the steps to be taken to ensure its integrity with our nation. In those steps he had devoted a full chapter on article 370. What is article 370, how can we deal with it and how to take it out.

Today we remember this book as new dawn awaits Kashmir.

Almost all political parties were waiting for someone to bail the cat. Once Bharatiya Janata Party (its earlier avtaar as Bharatiya Jana Sangh was consistent since last 68 years in asking for repeal or abrogation or making it ineffective of article 370 and article 35 A) took the plunge almost all the political parties except confused Congress, nonexistent Left, NCP etc all other parties supported it in one way or other either by voting or by abstaining.

Like a Bhasmasura Article 370 itself was used along with Article 367 amended (some clauses added) by Presidential order C. O 272 and then 370 (1) and (3) were used to suppress the article itself.

A very innovative way to circumvent the problem!

With credits to Wikipedia, Abacus, and Indian Government following links are given for the learned persons to understand more on article 370 and Presidential Order C.O 272 -

double click the links to read more - 

More about Article 370

Presidential Order C.O 272

  

Article 367