| Summary/Abstract |
The enduring asymmetry between India’s military capabilities vis-à-vis its adversaries is a matter of concern. The widely held view that it is largely because of the politico-bureaucratic apathy, which manifests itself in the continuing absence of a National Security Strategy (NSS) as the basis for defence planning and inadequate budgetary allocations, needs revaluation. The situation has not changed despite the government having set up a high-level Defence Planning Committee (DPC) in 2018 to inter alia draft the NSS. The budgetary allocations also continue to fall short of the requirement projected by the armed forces. This paper broadly explores these two issues and argues that there is a need to consider the desirability of setting up a 24x7 Defence Planning Board for financially viable defence planning and a bespoke Defence Capability Acquisition Organisation, both of which have been recommended in the past by committees constituted by the Ministry of Defence itself.
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