Book Description

Two issues that dominated the debates of the strategic community in the first quarter of this year were; ‘Make in India’ energetically marketed at the Aero-India Show and the Defence Budget. The Defence Budget is looked at intently to get the general emphasis of the government on security. Brig Gurmeet Kanwal has debated this lucidly. Maintaining a large standing armed force requires more than mere day-to-day support. An ill-equipped large force mired with equipment hollowness is not a guarantee for security but in a future war will be cannon fodder for the adversary. Someone will have to be held accountable to the nation for this debilitating lapse. Or take a conscious decision to reduce its size if this country cannot afford a well equipped large armed force!!! Preparing an armed force on a long-term basis requires a deeply considered perspective of its future role in the national security scheme and the road map for its implementation. The absence of a doctrine and the hesitation of establishing a single point of contact on all matters military have been well debated in this issue. Generals Harwant and Banerjee and Colonel Achutan look at the aspects of doctrine. ‘Make in India’ has been the didactic theme of this Government. It needs to be spelt out in clear terms and not left to the (mis-)interpretation of the bureaucracy. Make in India will be feasible only when the basic industrial manufacturing has notched up a number of counts and the manpower skills to go with it are matching. Currently it is more theoretical than implementable. The articles Dr Misra, Air Marshal Kukreja and Group Captain Noronha address these issues with particular reference to the aero-space industry. Two articles relate to the major current event on PM Modi’s visit to China; the first is on Tibet and the second on the boundary issue. Cyber space is emerging the next frontier; Gen Davinder Kumar has generated an excellent discussion on the issue. Col Harjeet has looked at the implications of social media on security. As a first Claude Arpi has documented a diary highlighting prominent issues relating to China’s PLA in this first quarter. This will now be a regular feature in the print edition. Wishing all our readers a worthwhile professionally invigorating reading experience.