India’s Defence Economy Planning, Budgeting, Industry and Procurement

As the fourth largest military spender in the world, India has a huge defence economy supported by a budget amounting to nearly $67 billion in 2020–21. This book examines how well India’s defence economy is managed, through a detailed statistical exposition of five key themes – defence planning, expenditure, arms production, procurement and offsets. This book is based on hard-core evidence collected from multiple government and other credible sources including the ministries of Defence, Finance, and Commerce and Industry, Comptroller and Auditor General of India and the Reserve Bank of India. It discusses key issues such as the evolution of India’s defence plan; the feasibility of increasing defence spending; India’s defence acquisition system; and the recent reform measures taken under the rubric of the ‘Make in India’ initiative. Well supplemented with original tables and figures, India’s Defence Economy will be indispensable to students and researchers of defence and security studies, politics and international relations, finance, development studies, economics, strategic studies, South Asian politics, foreign policy and peace studies. It will also be of interest to defence ministry officials, senior armed forces personnel, military attachés, defence training institutes and strategic think tanks.

1.Planning for India’s Defence 2.Bang for the Buck: India’s Defence Expenditure since Independence 3.The Defence-GDP Debate 4.Towards a Vibrant Defence Industrial Base 5. Reforming India’s Defence Procurement 6.Offsetting India’s Arms Import 7. Conclusion: Managing India’s Defence Economy

Laxman Kumar Behera is Research Fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, a premier New Delhi-based think tank. As a core member of the Institute’s Defence Economics and Industry Centre, he specialisesin issues related to defence procurement, offsets, defence expenditure, arms production and export control. In his career spanning nearly 14 years, he has been involved in ten studies for various agencies of the Indian government, including as a member and co-ordinator of three studies. His previous book, Indian Defence Industry: An Agenda for Making in India, was published in 2016.