ABOUT THE BOOK
fjrigjwwe9r0pp_Books:Description
As
she charts her destiny in lifting her masses from poverty and backwardness,
India is also obliged to ward off incessant military aggression from her two
near, and most inimical neighbours. Resultantly, she is compelled to spend as
much as Rupees three hundred thousand crores annually from her
overburdened national income to maintain the world’s third largest defence
forces. In normal course of state wisdom therefore, one would expect that such
a humungous investment would be managed in the most efficient manner to get the
maximum purchase out of every paisa. But alas, that is not
the case. What else could explain the contradiction that even with so much
manpower, hardware and funding committed upon her military power, none of her
adversaries are deterred from perpetrating acts of gross military escalation while
indulging in brazen acts of sabotaging the Indian nationhood - freely and with
immunity. It is also hard to explain as to why must India’s massive defence
forces have to be left short of their due war wherewithal, burdened with
obsolete weaponry and hardware, and saddled with overgrown and over-frigid
organisations for higher (mis)management.
The
answer is straightforward: the Indian military institution is inefficiently
managed. The long festering flaw is observed, understood and
enthusiastically banished now and then, but corrections are never actually
attempted. Solutions are known, more or less, but are held down, diverted and
scotched by systemic prejudices, paranoia and partisan machinations, as if by
design. The causes of such afflictions too are no secret: political apathy,
bureaucratic subterfuge and to some extent, myopic military leadership.This book is devoted
to arguments for empowerment of the apex military management system,
identification of the hurdles, redress of systemic concerns valid or conjured,
and goes on to offer certain options to modernise the system of Indian defence management
into an operationally efficient political instrument that would promote the
cause of India’s sovereignty in a cost-effective manner.
ABOUT Author
fjrigjwwe9r0pp_Books:aboutAuthor
During the course of
his long and distinguished service in the Indian Army’s Corps of Engineers and
the General Staff, Lieutenant General
Gautam Banerjee, PVSM,AVSM,YSM (Retd) has served in all of India’s the
remote border areas and has participated in all operations undertaken by the
Army since 1971. In the later part of his career, Gen Banerjee was the Chief
Engineer, Western Army Command, the General Officer Commanding of the Madhya
Bharat Area and the Chief of Staff, Central Army Command. Before superannuating
after 40 years of distinguished service, he was the Commandant of the Officers’
Training Academy, Chennai.
The General has been a prolific student of military
strategy, leadership and futuristic warfare and his writings are acknowledged
as thought provoking. During his service days, he has made singular
contributions in a range of Army’s modernisation and transformational studies.
Post superannuation, the General remains engaged in confabulations with the
international think tank community, besides writing, speaking and participating
in security related seminars and workshops in India and abroad. He is a Member
of the Executive
Council and a Distinguished
Fellowat the Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi, a Mentor with many think tanks in India and
abroad, and a Consulting Editor in India’s most prominent defence
journal, the ‘Indian Defence Review’, New Delhi.
Besides
authoring over one hundred articles and papers on military strategy,
organisation and history, the General has so far published four rather well
received books including one on contemporary military strategy, one based on his first hand knowledge of the
Maoist rebellion and the third on the People’s Liberation Army in Tibet. His
engagements also include the Trusteeship in
two Trusts working on soldiers’ welfare and morale.