NEW DELHI: As Indian Army is acknowledging Cold Start doctrine in public, PM Narendra Modi is working on a plan to adopt performance audit to spare more money on combat arms than distributing budget to non-combatant units, which have been under achiever for long and eventually turning out to be white elephant. Cold Start doctrine, a confidential war strategy of Indian Army, is on rapidly mobilising infantry and armoured units to launch offensive strikes across the plains and deserts of Pakistan.
A top official maintained that allocation of budget will now depend on performance audit of the several non-combatant organistation of the defence ministry. Organisations such as DRDO, Ordnance Factory Board, NCC, Defence Estate and Defence Accounts will be subjected to a objective review before being granted budget share, as some of these organisations have so far proved to be under-achiever.
A senior official said, “We need money for combat arms. This can only happen after performance audit. Allocation of budget should be on the basis of performance. It means poor performance in a year will mean less budget for next year.” It is notable that combat units are facing critical shortage of arms and ammunitions. India spends little more than Rs 2.58 lakh crore for national defence, which is less than 1.8 per cent of its GDP.
But, organisation like DRDO, which has budget of nearly Rs 12,000 crore annually, hardly proves worthy as government has recently identified nine of its key projects on which government has already spent Rs 16,708 crore and are still far away from completion. While on the contrary, DRDO has been pitching for more funds by comparing itself with China, which spends nearly 20 per cent of its defence outlay on Research and Development.
Similar Ordinance Factory Board, which shares annual budget of 3,000 crore, has not been able to provide basic infantry weapon. Moreover, it is often held responsible for poor quality of ammunition-led mishaps.