Increasing Efficiency in Defence Acquisitions in the Army: Training, Staffing and Organisational Initiatives

V Ganapathy

Defence Acquisition Process has evolved over the years propelled and shaped significantly by various reasons. The Ministry of Defence is allotted the largest share of the annual budget; the budget of 2015-16 saw an allotment of Rs. 2,46,727 crore, a significant proportion of which goes towards capital defence acquisition. Add to this the all-out push for the ‘Make in India’ initiative, at the heart of which as noted by the Prime Minister at the Aero India 2015, is the defence industry. While numerous initiatives are underway to make the process deliver, there is much to achieve within the service headquarters in matching up to the moment at hand, of which critical are organisational, staffing and training initiatives.

This monograph looks at enabling initiatives towards an improved and more centralised and committed organisation, training initiatives aimed at delivering focussed and specialist training and last but not the least, staffing recommendations essential to make any organisation deliver.

V Ganapathy Col V Ganapathy is an Infantry officer of the 8th Gorkha Regiment. He has served in various operational terrains. He spent two years as a Research Fellow with the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) in studies connected with defence acquisition. He was motivated to research the field of capital acquisition in defence following a tenure as Director Budget Cell with the Vice Chief of Army Staff, the Top Level Budget Holder for capital acquisition in the Army. He is also the Chief Editor of the CLAWS Web Focus the popular forum for regular commentaries and articles on land warfare and security-related issues that appear on the CLAWS website. He occasionally contributes articles on various security-related contemporary issues.

Contents

List of Abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. Background
3. The GSQR Conundrum
4. Trials and Tribulations
5. Are we Staffing Ourselves Right?
6. Focussed Training for Defence Acquisition
7. A Dedicated Organisation
8 Summary of Recommendations