Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on the ball — there cannot be a common GST rate for milk and Mercedes in India where the gulf between the rich and the poor is wide and there are huge income disparities. But all essential goods and services that are consumed by the poor can be easily exempted from GST. For example, all unbranded consumables essential for the living, including milk, should be kept in the zero duty slab. However, branded items, including milk packed in cans and cartons, should attract a higher tax rate. In a poverty-ridden country like India, Mercedes is rightly perceived in the category of sin goods and should fall in the highest tax bracket. Taking into account the socio-economic inequality, there cannot be one tax rate in the country. But, this does not justify multiple tax rates that have made the GST structure complex and convoluted. Besides standard tax slabs — 0, 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent — there is an array of tax rates such as special rates for gold (3 per cent), precious stones (0.25 per cent), yacht and aircraft for personal use (3 per cent), cess and so on. After one year of implementation of the GST, the government must try to minimise the tax slabs without “fear and favour” to certain industrialists or industries. For example, items in the 12 per cent and 18 per cent can be easily merged into one slab of 15 per cent without sacrificing any revenue. Similarly, special rates could be assimilated in the main slabs by trimming the lowest rate of 5 per cent by a hundred basis point. Addition of valuable items in the slab will not only raise revenue, but also provide relief to the consumer who is currently paying 5 per cent duty on items like insulin and khakra. Thus, the principle of reasonableness, without pride, prejudice and politics, can easily resolve the problem of tax multiplicity from a reform that was initiated to simplify the complex indirect tax regime. Admiringly, Arun Jaitley has given hints that tax slabs could be rationalised with the improvement of GST collections. But, it should be the other way around. Tax collection will increase by minimising rates, simplifying procedures and making compliance easier.
ACROSS THE BORDER Pak’s experience with lateral entry
Inviting applications for lateral induction may be an effort to improve governance, but it also speaks volumes about the tension between the political masters and the bureaucracy
Illustration: Sandeep Joshi
Ayesha Siddiqa
The Government of India recently invited applications to recruit talented people as lateral entrants at the level of joint secretaries. As per the announcement, the search is for 10 outstanding individuals with expertise in revenue, financial services, economic affairs, agriculture, cooperation and farmers’ welfare, road transport and highways, shipping, environment, forest and climate change, new and renewable energy, civil aviation and commerce. Once selected, these people will be hired on contract for a period of three to five years.While this may be seen as an effort to improve the government machinery, this speaks volumes about the tension between the political masters and the bureaucracy. The system of lateral entry into the service is likely to increase sourness of the relations and may have negative implications for the bureaucracy. This is indeed a system that is used in Pakistan. There are two methods for lateral inductions in Pakistan. The first method is more structural as there is almost a 10 per cent quota for military personnel to get inducted into certain branches of the civil service, such as administrative services and the police. According to this method, the select number of armed forces officers bypasses the civil service examination by only appearing for the interview. A second method is inducting military personnel or politically favoured civilians into the foreign service at ambassadorial positions. The lesson is that while semi-lateral entry at the juniormost level tends to create less problems as the system of joint training tends to develop a sense of camaraderie, the senior-level inductions are extremely problematic. Bureaucrats already serving in the system tend to feel sidelined, thus, discouraged to work or improve their performance. Notwithstanding the lack of independence of Pakistan’s Foreign Office from the politically powerful army, the lateral entries at senior levels add tremendously to hurting the organizational ethos.Unlike Pakistan’s bureaucracy that was systematically weakened by both military and civil governments alike, the Indian bureaucracy grew as a force to reckon with. Indeed, the civil service was the backbone on which the political class depended, resulting in India earning the title of a civil-authoritarian state. Masters of state’s rules and regulation, the bureaucrats have stuck to their power, a situation that a strong political government seems to want to change. The signal that is sent through this advertisement is that the government is willing to bring in new people to shake the system. The South Asian bureaucracy trained in colonial traditions is indeed not a friend of people. It tends to generate power by complicating matters. However, what is required is a broader structural analysis of the system and its overall re-engineering rather than such temporary changes that are ridden with problem. For instance, it is incomprehensible how a joint secretary would navigate the old guard in a period of three to five years. The time it would take even the most talented person to learn the tricks, the contract would be over. The permanent corps feeling insecure would also tend to create problems for these joint secretaries. Moreover, there would be a temptation for politicians to manipulate lateral entrants, adding to existing ailments of bureaucracy. If there is one thing that India could learn from Pakistan is how politicisation of bureaucracy, especially in the administrative services, revenue services and police weakens the state rather than strengthening it. The bureaucracy is the backbone of a state that needs to be handled carefully. The strengthening of regulatory frameworks and increasing level of accountability and transparency need to be considered. The colonial bureaucracy had well-trained men who were dedicated to protect interest of the British Crown. The culture has continued which needs to be changed. The process requires the vision of a genius that may be lacking in the Subcontinent at this juncture. The writer is author of Military Inc and research associate SOAS South Asia Institute
The address is now legal Punjab Cabinet’s yes to regularisation of colonies
PUNJAB has, once more, come clean and clear on its regularisation policy, with its Cabinet approving the Regularisation of Unauthorised Colony Bill. The contours of the pro-people policy are well defined, having taken into account the concerns of all stakeholders. The draft of the policy came with its own squeeze: property developers dismissed the policy notified in April as impractical, cumbersome and unrealistic, while Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu declared it was ‘pro-coloniser’ and crammed with flaws that would ‘kill planned urban development for next 25 years’.The Group of Ministers did well to take cognizance of the real fears on high licence fee, external development charges and composition fee; and incorporating suggestions forwarded by Navjot Sidhu, including those on road width and resident welfare associations. Under the reworked policy, plot holders applying for regularisation will have to ensure registration within the stipulated three months, while the developer must get 50 per cent plots registered within a year of filing an application. Otherwise, an additional 20 per cent cost would have to be braved. There is also a clause on the abeyance of FIRs against illegal developers if they deposit the mandatory charges. The regularisation charges will be used for providing basic infrastructure to colonies. The SAD-BJP alliance had introduced three such policies. A forklift overhaul was needed, but the short-term seductive narrative was a partial success. Punjab’s official figure of its illegal colonies is 7,000, some located outside the MC limits. Despite the numerous challenges that come with illegal colonies, the problem deserved sympathetic handling. Demolishing lakhs and lakhs of houses, rendering scores of people homeless, was well-nigh unthinkable. But again, the government can’t abdicate its own responsibility to provide affordable, clean living to its citizenry. Its development wings must keep coming up with planned colonies. The newest policy may claim to be sui generis if it can assure that at its non-negotiable core is the welfare of the buyer, struggling to find a decent place, with very basic amenities, she can call home.
Parents of young Pune officer onboard missing AN-32: We are not satisfied with answers given by IAF
Flt Lt Kunal (27), whose family is from Nigdi in Pimpri Chinchwad area, was a navigating officer with the 33 Squadron of the IAF, which is a transport squadron under the Southern Air Command and is located at Air Force Station Sulur in Tamil Nadu.
It is two years since the AN-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF), which was on a weekly flight from Chennai to Port Blair with 29 onboard, went missing on the morning of July 22. But for Rajendra Barpatte and Vidya, whose son, Flight Lieutenant Kunal, was the flight navigator on the plane, several questions remain unanswered as they seek closure.
Flt Lt Kunal (27), whose family is from Nigdi in Pimpri Chinchwad area, was a navigating officer with the 33 Squadron of the IAF, which is a transport squadron under the Southern Air Command and is located at Air Force Station Sulur in Tamil Nadu. There were 29 people onboard the AN-32, including the crew members. A massive search was conducted in the Bay of Bengal by the Air Force, Navy and the Coast Guard following the incident.
What had come as a shock for the Barpatte family was a letter they received from the office of Assistant Vice Chief of the IAF on August 26, 2016, seeking their consent for presumption of demise of their son. The Barpatte couple along with the kin of six IAF officers on the plane had refused to sign the letter. On September 15 that year, the IAF declared all the 29 persons onboard were presumed dead. IAF officials had clarified that the letter was an administrative procedure and the search will continue.
Flt Lt Kunal’s father, a retired scientist from the Central Institute of Road Transport, said, “In the months after the incident we had asked several questions to the IAF. Those questions were: what exactly happened to the aircraft, its overall condition, delay in starting the rescue operation despite the fact that authorities had received clear radar signals, failure of the Emergency Locater Beacon and many more things. The answers were given by the IAF after several months after we wrote to them repeatedly and the answers were all stereotypical and bureaucratic. We are not at all satisfied by these answers. We even received a mail asking if we were satisfied by the answers, as if they wanted to ask if we will stop asking. But I will soon be writing to them with my counter-queries.”
He added, “We fear that something like this will happen again as there are over 100 AN-32s in operation. The then Air Chief has said that upgrade of 40 out of the 100 aircraft was done in Ukraine from 2011 onwards. The remaining aircraft are being upgraded in India. As the lost aircraft was upgraded in India, we need to ask questions about those remaining aircraft which have been upgraded here. Does the IAF have any time-bound plan to replace the aging AN 32 fleet, which they keep calling their workhorse? How many precious lives are going to be lost before the authorities take any steps?”
The Barpattes have one more grievance. “Flt Lt Kunal had taken a housing loan from the State Bank of India, which was disbursed and we had even purchased the flat. After his death, we had requested the bank if we could be given some concession on the loan repayment like if the interest could be waived off. We are not asking for the entire loan to be waived off. But the bank has refused to do so. It is disheartening to get that reply. Both my wife and I are now retired. This is yet another battle that we are fighting,” he said.
Self-sufficiency before theatre commands by Air Marshal Narayan Menon (retd)
That theatre command is the way forward is a given. But we need to tread cautiously till our military-industrial complex becomes more self-sufficient and our dependence on foreign weapon imports is reduced.
Air Marshal Narayan Menon (retd)THERE have been media reports about the Indian military reorganising itself into integrated ‘theatre commands’ as opposed to the current system of ‘individual service regional commands’. The trigger for this proposed change could be the Chinese military creating five theatre commands, replacing the earlier seven ‘military regions’ in 2016 as part of the military reform that began in 2015.The USA was the first nation to adopt the theatre command concept as part of a policy that encompassed the entire globe. These ‘unified combat commands’ are organised either on geographical basis with a defined mission in a specific ‘area of responsibility’ somewhere on the globe or on a ‘functional’ basis. The USA has six geographical combat commands and four functional commands comprising cyber command, special operations command, strategic command and transportation command. Each combat command is fully equipped with necessary resources of land forces, air assets, naval vessels and Marine Corps elements. They have integral C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) capabilities and can seek assistance from any of the functional commands when required. They can conduct military operations independently. Each combat command has one commander – he or she could be from any service – who reports directly to the President of the USA through the Defence Secretary.China has successfully pursued a long-term comprehensive transformation of its military forces to improve its capabilities in power projection, anti-access and area denial. China has laid down a time-bound three-step developmental strategy in modernising its national defence:1. Lay a solid foundation by 2010.2. Make major progress by 2020.3. Achieve strategic goal of building ‘informatised’ (net-centric warfare enabled) armed forces capable of winning wars by 2050. The change to theatre commands is part of this long-term policy. But why did China wait till 2016 to enact this change? Analysis would reveal that China waited till its military arsenal and defence production capability reached self-sufficiency. China is not dependent on any other country for its military requirement. In fact, it is exporting high-end military products to many Asian and African nations. The General Secretary of the Communist Party of China exercises complete control over the Chinese military through the Central Military Commission of the CPC.Some similarities need to be noted between the USA and China. The USA spends $620 billion (3.5 per cent of its GDP) on the military while China’s military expenditure is $220 billion (2.3 per cent of its GDP). The actual figures for China are thought to be higher, with military expenditure being hidden under different civilian heads.India is in a completely different and subordinate class. India spends only about $ 60 billion on defence, which is less than 2 per cent of its GDP. Our military has shortages in personnel, equipment and firepower. The Army needs artillery guns and reliable rifles for its infantry. The Navy requires more submarines as replacements for its ageing fleet. The IAF is woefully short of fighter aircraft. We should have at least 45 frontline squadrons, but the current strength is around 30 squadrons. War waging reserves (WWR) are running low and we need more aircrew.Despite its best efforts, the DRDO has been unable to meet weapon requirements of the Indian military. We import 75 per cent of our war weaponry and energy needs. And in the current environment of threatened sanctions, inflow of weaponry and energy seems uncertain. Our military chain of command is fuzzy. The President who is the Supreme Commander has only ceremonial functions. Civilians without domain knowledge rule the roost and the military has to accept decisions in a process in which they are denied a voice.It is into this somewhat confusing scenario that we want to experiment by introducing a new concept of theatre command. By itself, the concept of India as a single theatre with one theatre commander is good. That theatre command is the way forward is a given, but we have to be careful. Till our military industrial complex is more self-sufficient and our dependence on foreign weapon imports is drastically reduced, we have to tread cautiously.But a beginning can be made. Space, cyber and C4ISR could be the functional commands where the three services are integrated. The Integrated Defence Staff should be the focal point for threat assessment, budget allocation and procurement. With the experience gained and when the situation is more favourable, India could move to form theatre commands.A major advantage of air power is its flexibility to relocate to meet emergent threats. If theatre commands are created within the existing scenario, this advantage would be sharply reduced. A force, already short of platforms, would have to be parceled out among the theatres and bureaucratic wrangles are likely to delay inter-theatre moves with detrimental effects on employment of air power. The priority for the Indian military today is to make up its deficiencies and eliminate its weaknesses within the existing structure. Military-civil decision-making needs to be refined. Without such corrections, structural changes, like creating theatre commands, would be counter-productive negatively affecting our national interests.
The debate, and vote, they trust by Ujjwal K Chowdhury
The no-confidence motion is part of strategic preparations for upcoming elections
As one: How the vote goes will be the next visible indicator of a ‘united’ Opposition front.
Ujjwal K Chowdhury
AROUND 12 Opposition parties held a meeting on July 16, where they agreed to collectively bring a vote of no-confidence against the Modi government in the ongoing Monsoon Session. The motion, brought on Tuesday and accepted on Wednesday, shall go for vote on Friday, as noted by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. The Opposition parties are demanding grant of special status to Andhra Pradesh, apart from raising the failures of the government on issues such as lynching, atrocities against women and Dalits, dilution of laws meant for SCs, attempts to abolish the reservation policy, the falling rupee, unemployment, farmerr’ distress, alleged tampering of EVMs, the J&K situation and foreign policy.Apart from the Congress, the most vocal among all parties to bring forth the motion has been the Telugu Desam Party, which tried to bring this in the last Lok Sabha session as well. As a former NDA ally, the TDP is well aware that barring any major twist over the next few days, the motion is unlikely to endanger the Modi government. And yet, it is celebrating the acceptance of the motion by the Speaker as a success. Kesineni Srinivas, the TDP parliamentarian who moved the motion, said the trust vote was less about testing the strength of the BJP government and more about its failures.In India, a motion of no confidence can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha. It is admitted for discussion if a minimum of 50 members of the House support it. If the motion carries, the House debates and votes on it. If a majority of members vote in its favour, the motion is passed and the government is bound to vacate the office. Acharya Kripalani moved the first-ever such motion on the floor of the Lok Sabha in 1963, immediately after the disastrous India-China War. As of July 2018, 26 no-confidence motions have been moved. PM Indira Gandhi faced the most number of no-trust motions, 15, followed by Lal Bahadur Shastri and Narasimha Rao (thrice each), Morarji Desai (twice) and Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi, Vajpayee, and now Modi (one each). All motions have been defeated except when Morarji Desai resigned during the discussions on in 1979. With the anti-defection law, the vote of no-confidence has no relevance. If an absolute majority party issues a whip to party members to vote in favour of the government, it is impossible to remove the government. In the present case, if the Opposition can prove its majority in the House, the Modi government will fall. However, the government expects to get the support of at least 314 MPs in the Lok Sabha, which has an effective strength of 535 members. The government needs the vote of only 268 members to defeat the motion. So, NDA’s win is guaranteed.Even if all BJP members, minus all allies, vote against the motion, which they are now bound to by dint of the anti-defection law and whip of the ruling party, the government will survive.But the motion will give a clear picture about the position of disgruntled NDA allies, like the Shiv Sena and to an extent, JD (U). It will also give the position of parties like BJD and Telengana Rashtra Samiti, who have largely maintained a middle path between NDA and the Opposition. Both the Congress and the BJP need to know the positions of these parties during the debate, and the final voting, to strategise on alliances for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls, as both need an alliance to make the winning cut. The Congress desperately needs to stitch a united opposition front to combat the war chest and election machinery, including the BJP’s cyber army. An opposition alliance is not just political, it is also a social alliance as each regional party brings with it a few specific castes or linguistic groups. The no-confidence motion debate, issues raised and the voting will give cue to the scope and size of this alliance, without which no single party can stand the current enormity of the BJP ruling India and 20 other states. The TDP tried bringing in the motion in the last session. Telangana was carved out of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, also on the promise of a special status to the truncated state and a generous fund to help build its capital city Amravati, and compensate the loss of revenue from the commercially thriving erstwhile capital city of Hyderabad, which has gone to Telangana. The Modi government has not fulfilled this promise, and it is being perceived as a failure of Chandrababu Naidu within his electorate. To ameliorate his electoral fortunes, the TDP supremo has a strong rationale to up the ante against the Modi government. A former minister of the Vajpayee government and rebel BJP leader, Yashwant Sinha had launched a new political outfit, National Forum, in early 2018 to expose the crime and corruption in the Modi government. Distressed politicians from the BJP (including Shatrughan Sinha) as well as opposition parties had sent their senior emissaries to be its members. Although positioned as a non-political group, it noted that it would campaign against the Modi government. The forum had organised several meets of Opposition leaders and paved the way of a united opposition force evolving today.The BJP failed to win in Karnataka in the last Assembly polls, in spite of being the largest party, while the second largest party Congress (but with a greater vote share than BJP) came around to support the JD (S) to form the government. The JD (S)-Congress government was ushered in with a lot of fanfare and in the presence of Opposition leaders of 16 parties. This was the second major development in increasing the index of Opposition unity.The coming together of Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal in Uttar Pradesh, ensuring the victory of the joint opposition candidates in Phulpur, Gorakhpur and Kairana byelections for the Lok Sabha, was the third major landmark in this rising index.Now, the Opposition wants to make the closing of arms by all Opposition parties (may be with support from some fence-sitters and perhaps at least one of the NDA allies) during the no-confidence motion debate and voting as the next and most visible landmark before a formally constituted united Opposition front takes shape. This is irrespective of the motion results. The Opposition wants to use the opportunity to highlight before the nation the failure of the government to fulfil its promises. Academic, media studies
The no-confidence motion
Going beyond the numbers game
Congress leader Sonia Gandhi could be badly off the mark for the second time in her political life on the numbers game in the Lok Sabha. Once in 1999, she had the self-assurance to claim the support of 272 members without undergoing the formal obligation of seeking support from potential allies. But not a single “migratory bird” flew to the Congress camp and Vajpayee’s deft handling of the Kargil conflict allowed him to consolidate political capital to shut the door on a Congress government for the next five years. This time, the numbers certainly do not favour the Opposition nor will they swell drastically to cause a missed beat in the BJP camp. This motion will bring the same limited advantages as the ones brought by an emasculated Opposition during the Congress’ heyday.The BJP is not resting on the oars of its comfortable majority. Like every major contestation since 2014, PM Modi and Amit Shah have injected an edge in this one too. That may be a blessing: the BJP’s scrounging for votes should expose the Potemkin opposition — like the meek submission of the Shiv Sena after an Amit Shah phone call — or call the bluff of the rebels-in-the-making such as Union minister Upendra Kushwaha. It is also the time when the Yashwant Sinhas and Kirti Azads need to give up their dual lives. Similarly, the positions taken on the vote will enlighten Congress and its dozen partners about the preferred line-up of the AIADMK, TRS, BJD and others for the 2019 elections.The excitement will be confined to the margin of victory. But the BJP needs to be circumspect about the subterranean signalling from the Opposition’s attempts to paint a sorry picture about its handling of cow-related lynchings, the bleak foreign affairs record and atrocities against women and Dalits. In 2003, the false confidence from Vajpayee government’s unchallenged clearance of the no-confidence motion brought about its Waterloo a year later. Modi may vault higher but must avoid the hubris of superciliousness, for there is much in India that needs fixing and arrogance is currently the only chink in the BJP’s armour.
Veteran Col Atamjit Singh comes to Rescue of debt ridden twin daughters of Army officers
Financial assistance poured IN for debit ridden daughter of an Army officer. Betrayed by their biological Father at tender age ,col Jasdev of ASC corps. Col Charanjit Singh ,Gen Secy received a cheque of Rs 25000/- from *Veterans Col Atamjit Singh* of 7 CAV for the noble cause .
We are greatful to him from the core of our heart to come forward for a noble cause. A advocate Malkait Singh has agreed to fight legal battle for the legitimate rights of the girls free of cost and will fight case at Patiala being from Chandigarh. Efforts of the Gen Secy ,Sanjha Morcha have started pying for the noble cause. Veterans requested to send cheques of any amount pay in favour of any girl name to the Branch office of Sanjha Morcha.
OR
Deposit Directly in their accounts
Pay to…..Chehak Kaur
OR
Pay to..Mehak Kaur
Address To, *Chehak Kaur /Mehak Kaur* C/O Ex Sevicemen Joint Action Front (Sanjha Morcha) #1403 sector 40-B Chandigarh-160036
RESPONSE FROM ADJUTANT GENERAL BRANCH ON SANJHA MORCHA LETTER WRITTEN : DEEDS ABOUT BIOLOGICAL FATHER SETTLED IN NIODA
In rare criticism, Navy officer blames IAF for ‘trust deficit’ between forces
here is stiff resistance from the Indian Air Force to theaterisation, or setting up of integrated commands where the assets of all three defence arms would come under the operational control of a three-star officer from any of the three services.
The Indian Air Force has harmed itself by opposing ‘theaterisation’ and this has resulted in weakening of trust between it and the army and the navy, a top navy officer wrote in a new paper published by defence think-tank Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (Cenjows) on Friday in a rare criticism of one service by a serving senior officer in another.
The paper, titled ‘The IAF and Theaterisation — Misplaced Apprehensions,’ is a deep dive into the military’s approach towards enhancing so-called jointmanship and its progression tow-ard theaterisation. Jointmanship refers to a degree of co-ordination and integration in terms of both strategy and execution across the three services. Theaterisation refers to placing under a Theatre Commander, specific units of the army, the navy, and the air force.
There is stiff resistance from the IAF to theaterisation, or setting up of integrated commands where the assets of all three defence arms would come under the operational control of a three-star officer from any of the three services, depending on the function assigned to that command.
“By continuing to stress on a ‘do it alone’ command structure, the IAF has only harmed itself. It has resulted in a weakening of trust with the other two services who have attempted to resolve the issue by investing into integral air power,” rear admiral Monty Khanna wrote.
Cenjows was set up by the defence ministry over a decade ago.
The two-star admiral is currently posted at the prestigious Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, where he is the navy’s chief instructor.
Citing the examples of the navy and army deploying air assets, Khanna notes in the paper, “This chipping away of IAF roles will continue until the fundamental issue of trust is addressed. For doing so, the IAF would need to embrace the deepening of its integration with the other two services rather than back-pedal on this relationship.”
The principle of “one front, one commander” would require the cutting down the number of existing commands from 14 to around four. While all the three services would be impacted, the IAF could get the short end of the stick with the most to lose, the paper states.
“This is the 800 pound gorilla in the room which often unites the three services in opposing theaterisation. Understandably, opposition from the IAF is the most vehement.” Khanna wrote. This is an issue that the three services have to resolve among themselves and thereafter take up with the government.
Cenjows director, lieutenant general Vinod Bhatia (retd), described the paper as “very significant” as it made a strong case for theaterisation at a time it is “very much required” and being pushed by the government.
“We are opposed to the idea of theater commands and have articulated our stand to the government,” said Air Marshal KK Nohwar (retd), who heads the Centre for Air Power Studies.
While a navy official refused to comment, saying that the admiral had authored the paper for a think tank, defence ministry officials declined to react, saying they hadn’t read the paper.
While Indian Army globetrots in search of a modern rifle, a hi-tech one is made in Chambal
The Army’s quest to replace INSAS began after Kargil when soldiers reported jamming, heavy recoil and cracked fibre glass magazines in the weapon.
New Delhi: In two weeks from now a factory near the Chambal ravines in Madhya Pradesh will fashion a bullpup. A bullpup is a rifle with a short barrel, its magazine located behind the pistol grip.
In the same time, a team of nine officers from the Indian Army will be globe-trotting in search of a rifle, from the US to Australia.
Guns being made in the Chambal, notorious through the 1970s and the 1980s for dacoits wielding country-made firearms, kattas, is old hat.
Yet, when the Tavor X95 carbine is rolled out from the first private sector small arms factory at Malanpur near Gwalior by a joint venture between Punj Lloyd and Israel Weapons Industries (IWI) named Punj Lloyd Raksha Systems, it will frame a picture that is at once a snapshot of failure as it is promissory.
“The long-term potential market for rifles in India is about 4 million pieces spanning the armed forces and the services under the ministry of home affairs,” says Ashok Wadhawan, president (manufacturing), of the company. “Right now we are looking at the immediate orders for which the search committee will also be visiting Israel.”
Israel did not exist when India formally started making rifles by the banks of the Hooghly at Ishapore near Calcutta in the early 20th century. The search committee that last week began globe-trotting to choose an assault rifle in the latest drive to replace the Insas 1B1, will be given a demonstration of the Galil by the IWI in Israel.
Wadhawan’s company began operations last year mainly as an exporter of components for assembly by the IWI of Tavor, Galil and Negev guns back home in Israel. The Tavor X95 bullpup it is now fashioning would be its first complete firearm “only for our internal purposes”, he said.
Tavor X951 | @IWIUS/Facebook
The nine-member Indian Army team will be visiting, apart from Israel, the US to evaluate the M series, Australia for the F90 family, the UAE, to test the Caracal 817AR, and South Korea to check out the S&T Motiv (formerly S&T Daewoo) offering.
Dissatisfaction
The Army’s quest to find a replacement for its standard issue rifle, the INSAS, began shortly after the 1999 Kargil war when soldiers reported jamming, heavy recoil and cracked fibre glass magazines in the weapon.
Despite improvements claimed by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Army was not satisfied. It rejected the OFB’s latest offering, named the Excalibur.
The inability of India’s defence industry to make a modern rifle is matched by the Army’s tardiness in deciding what it really wanted and the government’s tight-fistedness in giving the funds.
The projected requirement for the army is 7 lakh assault rifles, 4.4 lakh carbines and 41,000 light machine guns. It issued a first request for information to about 12 foreign vendors in 2011. Even after the RFI, the Army toyed with the idea of a rifle capable of firing two different calibres of bullets – the lighter 5.56mm and the heavier but more lethal 7.62mm – from modular, interchangeable barrels.
It dropped the idea in February. The Army chief, General Bipin Rawat, also settled the issue of numbers, slashing them from the original projection to 94,000 assault rifles, 72,000 carbines and 17,000 LMGs.
“It has taken us a while but we have decided on what we need,” a senior infantry officer told ThePrint. The assault rifle is now required to have a range of at least 500 metres and the carbine 300 metres. The numbers have also been decided on the assumption that only 60 per cent of an infantry battalion (of about 800-900 soldiers) are tasked with engaging in direct combat while the others are in supporting roles.
The Indian Army has 382 regular infantry battalions and 60 other combat battalions (mechanised, armoured, scouts).
The modern assault rifles and guns with the longer range of 500m would be issued to those tasked in direct combat within each battalion. The others would be equipped with rifles/carbines of the shorter 300m range. Both would fire 7.62mm bullets.
The AK legacy
For decades, the Indian Army has used the AK-series – and many soldiers even now prefer the AKs to the INSAS – but the search committee will not be visiting Russia. This may be surprising because the Avtomat Kalashnikov (AK)-47 and its variants, products of the early years of the Cold War, are the most widely used firearms by state forces and insurgents alike.
“My thinking is, since a state-of-the art assault rifle will cost about Rs 2 lakh each in the global market, let us issue these only to frontline infantry soldiers who confront the enemy armed only with their rifles,” the Army chief, General Bipin Rawat, explained just before Army Day (15 January) this year. “Let us provide a cheaper indigenous option to other soldiers for whom the rifle is not a primary weapon,” he said.
So is India, Russia’s strategic partner, abandoning that legacy? Not yet. The Army believes that the latest version, the AK-103, could fit the bill for its soldiers in supporting arms and those not directly tasked with engaging the enemy. The AK-103, which may be produced again under license by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) could well be the “cheaper, indigenous option” the Army chief was suggesting.
Assault rifle AK 103 | kalshnikov.com
For the assault rifles, the selected vendor would have to supply the consignment with night vision devices within 28 months of contract under the “Fast Track Procedure” of the latest Defence Procurement Policy. All of this would be possible if the Army does not change its mind again and the government sticks to a timeline.
Till such time, bullpups in the land of kattas will remain a chimera for the military in a country that has made guns for more than a century.
Govt to cash in on defence land, treat transactions as capital receipts
The lack of consistency of data on these land parcels reveals the risk government runs in administering them
In a marked shift in the way land belonging to the defence ministry is used, it has been decided that transactions in defence lands will be treated as capital receipts. Also, in order to cash in on the value of the real estate held by the defence ministry in metros and big towns, shops located on its land will be made to pay rents at market rates from now on.Both the finance and defence ministries have approved these proposals, which are part of a report filed by a committee set up by the ministry of defence to examine the utilisation of its land bank. Headed by former finance secretary Sumit Bose, the committee was also meant to find ways of bringing order to the land banks in and around the cantonments and monetise them wherever possible.Once introduced, the measures will rationalise the usage of land by the defence ministry, which, according to its own estimates, holds 1.75 million acres across the country. Of this, approximately 9 per cent is situated within the 62 notified cantonments and the rest is located outside these cantonments, as per data with the Directorate General, Defence Estates, a body under the defence ministry. For security reasons, the location of a large part of this land bank is not made public.ALSO READ: Defence Ministry approves military purchases worth over Rs 55 billionThere are no uniform rules on land utilisation by the defence ministry units. And more than one report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed to the “unsatisfactory management of defence estates”. In an audit report issued in 2013, the CAG noted that there was misuse of defence land by either local military authorities or unauthorised occupation of land when the lease on them had long expired. These drawbacks, the report went on to say, had been highlighted in previous audit reports too, but the problem has not been solved.In test checks of just six cases spread across Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and Pune, the CAG report estimated a loss of Rs 8.30 billion to the government because the defence ministry had delayed renewing the lease with the parties concerned. This did not include the Adarsh housing case in Mumbai.However, the defence ministry is not the largest owner of land bank among government departments. That honour goes to the ministry of railways. But the numbers vary. Data gleaned from the government land information system is often at variance with the annual reports of the respective departments of the ministries.For example, at 723,919 acres, the railway ministry’s land back falls short of the land data from the records of the Directorate General, Defence Estates.Again, the land holdings of the ministries of coal, power and heavy industries among others, are reckoned to be larger than that belonging to defence.
As per the latest budget data, the asset register of all land held by the government of India is at Rs 3.52 trillion.The lack of consistency of data on these land parcels reveals the risk government runs in administering them. The Bose committee said that defence land is particularly vulnerable to encroachment as large chunks of it are located in and around cities. A Parliament reply given by defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier this year also acknowledged the scale of the problem.The minister’s reply stated that currently, more than 10,000 acres of defence land have been encroached upon. As the audit reports show, even those under the effective control of the ministry are not well managed.In its recommendations, the Bose committee says that no land parcels should be sold or leased before the decisions are vetted at a centralised level. Plus, the proceeds should not become the income of the cantonments, but should enter the Consolidated Fund of India as capital receipts. The management of the Fund vests with the finance ministry. By ensuring that the money is treated as capital receipts, Parliament will see to it that the money does not disappear in the general revenue stream, and instead, is used to build military assets. This will also cut down chances of corruption in the use of land parcels by unmonitored entities.The committee has also suggested that once the purpose for which a land parcel was given out is over, the local military authorities should hand it out to other parties. Currently, there is no way to track the loss to the government from such transfers.A public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court in 2014 by an NGO, asking the Court to give directions to the government to stamp out such practices.In addition, the committee has advised against leasing out shops to private parties in cantonments at concessional rates.Citing the example of Delhi, it has shown that this is a revenue loss for the cantonment and also gives an unfair advantage to those who get the lease at subsidised prices. In fact, it has gone on to suggest that all renewals of lease of shops and establishment on defence land should be at market rates from now.This will of course have a knock-on effect on the real estate sector as the prices of shops in several upscale markets that are built on defence land across the country will likely shoot up. In both Delhi and Mumbai some of the prime shopping centres are built on defence land.The audit reports show that the committee’s report and recommendations are based on strong evidence. Delay in the renewal of lease benefits private parties while the government loses out.For example, in Kolkata, the Royal Calcutta Turf Club has occupied 153.41 acres of prime land in the heart of the city, but the lease for it was not renewed for six years from 2007 to 2013. The delay cost the exchequer Rs 8.14 billion.
Key proposals
No land parcels should be sold or leased before the decisions are vetted at a centralised level
The proceeds should not become the income of the cantonments, but should enter the Consolidated
Fund of India as capital receipts
All renewals of lease of shops and establishment on defence land should be at market rates
*From a report filed by a panel set up by the defence ministry to examine the utilisation of its land bank
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