Laxman Behera

• Jawaharlal Nehru University

The rollout of AUKUS represents a tectonic shift in the geopolitical rivalry between China and other Indo-Pacific nations. The coming together of three major democratic countries in a strategic technology pact to counter the authoritarian China in the Indo-Pacific could not have come at a more opportune time for India, which is facing increasing Ch...

This brief examines India's defence budget for 2023-24. It outlines the economic context for India's latest defence allocations, and examines the drivers of growth, the broad distribution of resources among the defence forces, and the impact of such distribution on modernisation and the domestic defence industry. The brief posits that the new defen...

The challenge posed to India by China is occurring across a broad range of fronts, but nowhere has it been more evident in recent years than in the deadly physical confrontations along the border separating the two countries. Beijing’s more assertive approach has triggered a strong response from New Delhi, involving both strategic ties with like-mi...

The Union Cabinet announced in June this year the Agnipath scheme, designed to recruit youths into the Other Ranks (ORs) of the Indian armed forces. The scheme, which came into effect immediately, will enable new recruits, or Agniveers, to serve in the military for four years. While the stated aim is to turn the Indian military into a younger and m...

With INR 107.45 billion ($1.54 billion) worth of arms exports and export authorisations in 2018–2019, India realised its biggest annual defence export ambition to date. Breaking into the world’s top 25 defence exporters for the first time, India has set its goal even higher, with a target of INR 300 billion ($5 billion) in defence exports by 2025....

India has expended a great deal of energy and resources to set up a vast defence economy to innovate state-of-the-art weapon systems. However, the performance of the defence economy has been largely suboptimal. An examination of the causes of poor performance exhibits a number of shortcomings related to India’s both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ innovation cap...

This article examines India’s defence expenditure over the past ten years. In so doing, it provides a public finance perspective to explain the recurring resource crunch being faced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The article reasons that a substantial augmentation of resources for the MoD in the past has faced stiff barriers due to lack of tax b...

The Union Budget 2021-22, presented to the Parliament on February 01, 2021, earmarked Rs 4,78,196 crore to the Ministry of Defence or some 14 per cent of the total central government's budget. Representing an increase of just 1.4 per cent, the increase in the MoD's latest allocation is one of the lowest in recent past. What has caused such a paltry...

Post-COVID, the renewed emphasis on indigenisation in India calls for a fresh, in-depth examination of the entire range of issues and policies pertaining to the development of a capable domestic base for the defence industry and technology. This study opens up the field of inquiry, first, by adapting the well-known Delphi method for the indigenous...

The defence industrial cooperation is a clear missing link in an otherwise expanding strategic relationship between India and the US. The one-way defence trade is not only out of sync with India’s traditional demand for technology transfer and license production from its arms suppliers, but is also contrary to Make in India initiative of the Indian...

India's defense acquisition system has evolved over the years and now consists of hierarchical and institutional structures and detailed procedures. The evolved system has created an atmosphere for undertaking acquisition in a more methodical, process-oriented and objective manner. The success of the evolved system is evident from its ability to ex...

The article examines the existing roadblocks to the involvement of the Indian private sector in defense production. It nonetheless starts with a question as to why the government is interested in promoting the private sector in the defense industry, which was long considered to be the exclusive domain of the state-owned enterprises. The second fact...