Defence Notes

New Delhi, 16 March 2010

Army Besieged

FACES BIG SHORTAGE OF OFFICERS

By Syed Ali Mujtaba

The approval of the Union Government to open a second Officers' Training Academy (OTA) at Gaya in Bihar marks a major step to solve the problem of shortage of officers in the country. The new academy will function on similar lines as the one that exists in Chennai. Initially the new Officers Training Academy at Gaya will commence the training of 250 cadets, but in due course of time it will be upgraded to its full design capacity to train 750 short-service commission officers annually.

At present the Indian Army has two training institutions-- one, is the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun that annually churns out permanent commission officers. The other is the Short Service Commission officers that come out of the Officers Training Academy at Chennai. 

The IMA gets its cadets from the tri-Service National Defence Academy (NDA) at Khadakwasla, which is open to youngsters after class XII, as well as through the `direct entry' route open to college graduates. The Officers Training Academy, however, is open to college graduates and is struggling for students. In both the institutions students have to clear a very comprehensive test and this includes a physical endurance test.  

As part of their force-restructuring to maintain a young profile and attract bright youngsters to their fold, the Armed forces are gradually moving towards substantially increasing the number of short service commission officers in their ranks.  The change in intake pattern will eventually lead to one is to two ratio for Permanent Commission to Short Service Commission officers.

The IMA currently has a capacity to train 950 officers per year, while the OTA trains around 500 officers. The capacity at both these academies is also being expanded to train an additional 100 cadets each every year. However, the NDA that enlists high school graduates and trains them into officers for the Navy, Air Force and the Army, is struggling to find recruitments.  The Defence Ministry records show just 190 students signed up this month as against the Academy's sanctioned strength of 300.

Incidentally, almost all the three wings of the Armed forces in the country are short of officers. The Indian Army is short of around 11,400 officers, the Navy of 1,500 officers and the Air Forces is grappling with a shortage of about 1,400-odd men.

The shortage of the defence force officers becomes conspicuous when we cross-check shortages of the officers with those of its prescribed strength. While the Army has an authorized strength of 46,614 officers, the Air Force has 12,136, whereas the Navy’s strength is of 8,797 officers.

Sadly, the Army, the world's fourth largest, is failing to attract enough youngsters with “officer-like qualities'' for its 1.13-million strong Army. In addition, the Army is facing a massive exodus from its ranks, with more and more officers opting for premature retirement. This shortage of officers is blamed on stress, low pay, slow promotions and the military's tough lifestyle.

Even though the salary of the Armed forces have substantially increased after the 6th Pay Commission, the youngsters still find it less compared to the private sector. This consideration is put forth especially when one takes into the account of the life of a soldier which is tough and risky.

Additionally, the Army has severe promotional bottlenecks. After entering the Army, an entry level officer must wait up to 10 years before donning the flashes of a lieutenant-colonel. But even at that level the monthly basic salary does not exceed much. The other contributing factors are poor promotional avenues and frequent transfers that disrupt family life of the officers.

The traditional catchments area like such as Punjab and Rajasthan for recruitment of Army officers have apparently gone dry.  Most of the families that have strong soldiers background have stopped sending their wards to the Amy schools and are keen to send them abroad, which obviously has  hampered the steady flow of the officers in the Military service. 

This apart, it is the lack of interest of the Anglo-Indian and Muslim communities in joining the Army that has resulted into further shortage of the officers. If we check the old records and compare theses with the recent ones the total desertions of these two communities from the Armed forces is glaring.

We may like it or not, but corruption has entered into the Armed forces as well. Many talented recruits feel that patriotism and valour, the two cardinal features of the deference services, are increasingly being compromised with corruption seeping into its ranks. This could also be one of the factors that keeps them away from the defense services.

Other than the deficiencies in the Army itself, the shortage of officers is also a result of the booming private sector managing to recruit the best talent.  The private sector, which has been luring away India's best talent by offering hefty wages and generous perks and the government and the services, simply cannot compete in matters of salary and perks with the corporate world.

Interestingly, the Armed forces have enormous opportunities available outside the services. According to the defence ministry's Directorate of Resettlement, a third of the 3,000 officers who retire annually enlist in top Indian business schools. And the corporate world welcomes retiring military recruits with open arms.

This has left the military with poor pickings. Most of those applying are not the right material. Experts feel that the deficiencies should not be met by lowering the quality standards of the world's largest voluntary army.

India, which has fought three wars with Pakistan and a bloody border skirmish with China since its Independence, has never turned to compulsory recruitment, as it is in countries like Israel. But such a move could be an option before the Government. While it claims that it has not given this aspect much thought, the possibility cannot be ruled out in the future. However, skeptics feel that conscription is not the answer to the problem because it may lead to indiscipline, waywardness and desertions.  

Nonetheless the recruitment issue has become an urgent priority for the Army after 3,000 mid-level commanders recently sought early retirement on top of an existing shortage of 11,200 officers. In all, it needs a total of 46,615 officers. How this anomaly is going to be resolved needs to be seen in the new policies that are going to be evolved by the government in the course of time. The only consolation is that thanks to India's billion-plus population and high unemployment, the 1.23-million-strong Army has no shortages in the lower ranks.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Defence Notes

New Delhi, 3 March 2010

Defence Budget

MEASLY HIKE, LACKS PUNCH

By Col. (Dr.) P K Vasudeva (Retd)

After the huge 34 per cent jump in allocation in 2009-2010 to plug operational gaps in the wake of the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai, the defence outlay got a measly 3.98 per cent this fiscal 2010-2011, higher than last year but the lowest in seven years. Though the defence budget for 2009-10 had increased by 34 per cent over the previous year—it was one of the highest raise in India’s history—yet a large part of this increase went towards the higher salaries recommended by the Sixth Pay Commission. And while the operating expenditure of the Armed Forces has been on the rise, the capital expenditure declined last year. This does not bode well for defence modernisation.

If the revised estimates of last year are taken into account, then the budget has a slightly healthier 8.13 per cent hike. For the record, the 2010-2011-defence outlay stands at Rs. 1,44,344 crore compared to last year’s allocation of Rs. 1,41,703 crore.

With this measly hike of about four per cent, the modernisation of the 13-lakh strong Armed Forces is going to suffer seriously in the absence of concrete long-term strategic plans to systematically build military capabilities. This when the threat perception from both China and Pakistan is growing. India not only has to evolve an Israeli model if it desires to obviate threat perception from its adversaries but its defence outlay needs to be trebled. “Needless to say, any additional requirement for the nation’s security will be provided for,” said Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, which is the only saving grace.

The capital outlay, largely meant for acquiring new weapon systems and platforms, is pegged at Rs 60,000 crore this fiscal, which represents a 9.4 per cent jump over last year’s allocation of Rs 54,824 crore. It becomes a robust 25.4 per cent if compared to revised estimates at Rs 47,824 crore of 2009-10. Out of Rs 60,000 crore of capital outlay, the Indian Air Force has got the biggest chunk of Rs 24,954 crore. The Army got Rs 16,969 crore, Navy Rs 2,972 crore, Naval Fleet Rs 6,950 crore and Naval Dockyard Rs 417 crore.

An explanation offered is that the IAF is set to purchase some 126 multi-role fighters. It has floated a tender for attack helicopters and also transport helicopters besides new training aircraft for its fighter pilots. Additionally, it is  set to purchase critical equipment for air defence.

This apart, the major equipment that could come up for purchase includes the sea-borne aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov and the large lending ships. The Army will be buying heavy vehicles worth Rs 1074 crore, while Rs 4,722 crore has been allocated for its construction activity.

However, the recurring ghost of unspent funds and defence deal scams  continues to haunt the Armed Forces, with the defence ministry stifling red tape and cumbersome procurement procedures. It has failed to spend Rs 7,000 crore from 2009-2010 capital outlay. That is a sign that the Armed Forces, worrying more on operating costs than long-term investments, are not being pushed to improve their teeth-to-tail ratios. Of the three Services, the  Navy is the only one acting against this trend. In the absence of any strategic guidance, modernisation plans will in all likelihood continue to lag behind.

Indeed, the entire planning process needs a complete overhaul. From the lack of adequate number of submarines, obsolete radars and outdated air defence weapons to the failure to induct new 155 mm artillery Howitzers since the Bofors case of the mid 90s, the Forces have had several gaps in operational capabilities. This despite the fact that the nation has spent over $50 billion for arms acquisitions since the 1990 Kargil conflict.

If the projected GDP for 2010-1011 is taken, the country’s defence expenditure is a mere 2.12 per cent, less than the 3 per cent demanded by the Armed Forces and strategic experts since a long time. For the past two decades, India’s military expenditure has hovered around 2.75 per cent of the GDP. 

On a broader note, there is a need for India to strengthen its diplomatic and military capabilities in consonance with its rise as an economic power. Contrary to those who argue in favour of spending more on development instead of defence say, the “guns versus butter” debate is spurious: Unless adequate provisions are made for defence, no State will be able to pursue its developmental agenda. This is even truer in India, which faces a unique security environment with two of its “adversaries” straddling it on both sides of its borders and problems on all sides of its periphery. Compared with China’s 7 per cent and Pakistan’s 5 per cent of the GDP defence expenditure, India’s defence budget continues to be very low.

Finally, the issue of spending on defence should also require taking a closer look at the foreign ministry’s budget. That budget may have increased by 24 per cent last year, but the Indian Foreign Service needs a major revamp; it continues to be extremely small, compared with the expanding interests of the country, in almost every part of the world. Defence and diplomacy are two sides of the same coin and India cannot afford to ignore either of these.

There is no substitute for strategic thinking and institutional effectiveness in foreign and security policymaking. We may well need a blue ribbon commission to inquire into this. Otherwise, budgets will come and go without adequately serving Indian security interests.

In order to make the workforce more competitive, the government has curtailed certain tax benefits, rewarding sufficient autonomy to help them compete and create a level-playing field so that the private sector comes forward for defence production via the joint venture route. The Defence Minister, A K Antony, has indicated that the government is examining all pros and cons before it sets a time-frame for the Defence Production Policy in which the provisions would be incorporated to seek indulgence of private sector for defence exports with minimum government approvals. In the absence of the policy, exports of defence articles, equipment, component and finished products are cumbersome but something would have to be done on this front.

Defence experts feel that a clear-cut road map for corporatisation of ordnance factories should be seriously considered. Without it the country’s defence production will remain import-oriented and the factories and its workforce would not be competitive enough.

Keeping in view the threat perception there is a dire need of building roads, railway lines and airports for the jet fighters’ operations right up to the borders as has been done by China. Pakistan is trying to settle its ex-servicemen nearer to the borders and arming them for better security alerts. Thus, India must be strong enough like Israel to counter any attack of offensive from our adversaries. Time to get started. –INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Events & Issues

New Delhi, 22 Mach 2010                  

Cyber Crimes

NEED FOR RELEVANT LAWS

By Prakash Nanda

Information technology (IT) is a double edge sword, which can be used for destructive as well as constructive work. It has now created for the mankind a fifth dimension to land, sea, air and space, though unlike the other four dimensions it is completely man-made and man-controlled. 

We all know how because of the constructive use of IT, India’s profile and wealth has gone up enormously in the world.  But at the same time, and this is the dangerous aspect, India now ranks fifth among countries reporting the maximum number of cyber crimes, if a recent report released by Internet Crime Complaint Centre of the United States is to be believed. In fact, it is said that with India becoming home to the fourth highest number of Internet users in the world, cyber crimes have been rising at more than 50 per cent every year.

That India is undergoing a turbulent phase with regard to cyber crimes is evident from the recent attack by the Chinese hackers to the computers in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). The sinister attempt was made around December 15 last year. Investigators are still coming to terms with the depth of the damage. The hackers had aimed high then -- their targets were the cream of India's national security set-up: National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrashekhar, PM's Special Envoy Shyam Saran and Deputy National Security Advisor Shekhar Dutt. The four and up to 26 others were squarely in the crosshairs of the hacking attempt.

The timing of the espionage attempt has investigators suspecting that the Chinese hackers were desperately trying to access any data on India's position at the Copenhagen Climate Summit. It may be noted here that until Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Copenhagen on December 17, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and PM's Special Envoy Shyam Saran were singing different tunes. But what has disturbed investigators the most is that the Chinese hackers quite likely had inside help. The possibility of a mole within the Indian establishment helping a foreign adversary is staring investigators in the face.
 
In March 2009, a China-based cyber spy network had hacked into the Government and private systems of 103 countries, including those of many Indian embassies and the Dalai Lama. In May 2008, hackers from China attacked the Ministry of External Affairs’ (MEA) website. Despite official denials, at least one website reported that the hackers had stolen the login identities and passwords of several Indian diplomats. In any case, a huge number of 9,052 Indian websites have been at the mercy of an anti-India community, that too in just last three years. Hackers from across the Indian borders have become the new threat point for the Government.

Of course, cyber attacks from across the border are not new to India. It happened for the first time when during the nuclear tests at Pokhran in 1998, Pakistan hacked into the websites of Zee News and India Today. The Pakistan-based hackers, GForce Pakistan and Pakistani Hackerz Club, owned up the intrusion, leaving threatening messages and demanding a stoppage to the N-Tests. Even after the Parliament attack in December 2001 and later a massive troop standoff between India and Pakistan, several hacking incidents were reported.

It may be noted that the Pakistani hackers targeted the Indian website www.armyinkashmir.com, which was providing factual information about daily events in the Kashmir Valley in 1999. The hackers posted photographs showing the Indian security forces allegedly killing Kashmiri people and blamed the Indian Government for “atrocities” in Kashmir. Obviously, it had the intended impacts in the valley.

In December 2008, the Eastern Railways portal was hacked by Whackerz-Pakistan. The official site www.easternrailway.gov.in bore a strange look. When opened, the top scroll on the site, which normally consists of official announcements, had unusual notes. The first note read: “Cyber war has been declared on Indian cyberspace by Whackerz-Pakistan (24 Dec-2008).” The scene became grimmer after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008.  The Pakistani group, Pakistan Cyber Army, hacked into the websites of the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, the Centre for Transportation Research and Management, the Kendriya Vidyalaya of Ratlam (a chain of schools run by the Indian Army) and the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation of India (ONGC). The damages took a long time to fill.

Even at the individual level, cyber attacks have been on an increase in India.  According to the Delhi police, in 2009 email hacking and the consequent cheating cases went up by 150 per cent. It is said that Nigerian gangs are very active in India, particularly during festive seasons when massive purchases are done through online, thanks to the system of credit cards and online bank accounts.

In India cyber crimes come under both traditional Indian penal Code (IPC) and the Information Technology Act, 2000, which has been amended in 2008.  And here lies the confusion. Since policing is a “State” subject and the complaints have to be lodged with the local police, it all depends under what laws the police registers the cases, and it so happens the Police prefers the age-hold IPC. This is so because the local police is not conversant with the intricacies of the IT Act, which is a central legislation. But once the case is under IPC, then the method of investigation has to be under the guidelines associated with the IPC. And if one goes by that method, it will be extremely difficult to prove the most of the cyber crimes, experts say.  

Even under the IT Act, investigations in India are not that easy. And this is mainly due to the lack of what is called The Cyber Forensics. We know how forensic devices are important in normal criminal investigations to gather evidence to prove in the court. But to prove cyber crimes, electronic evidence and their collection and presentation have posed a challenge to the investigation and prosecution agencies and the judiciary.

Cyber-related Techno-Legal acumen and knowledge is not well-developed in India. As it is, Techno-Legal acumen is difficult to acquire as it requires a sound working and practical knowledge of both technical as well as legal aspect of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) related aspects. Issues like Cyber Law, International Telecommunications Laws, Cyber Forensics, Digital Evidencing, Cyber Security, etc pose difficult and sometimes non-understandable legal issues before the Courts. This explains why there is almost no conviction of cyber criminals in India. The Judges in India must fill in this much-needed and unnoticed legal gap that has not yet been explored by them.

In sum, India needs a good combination of law and technology. But it has to be such that this combination is in harmony with the laws of various countries, keeping in mind common security standards. Because, in this era of e-governance and e-commerce a lack of common security standards can create havoc for the global trade in goods and services, not to talk of military matters. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Events & Issues

New Delhi, 24 February 2010

Health In Danger

QUACKS & FAKE DRUGS ON RISE

By Suraj Saraf

“Path-breaking initiatives” for providing “quality and affordable” healthcare and innovative approaches to deliver medical care to remote and rural areas by the Union Health Ministry in recent times appears to be under grave attack by widespread quackery and flourishing fake drugs.

Quackery has made its way even into the most reputable hospitals of the Union capital, Delhi, not to speak of its prevalence elsewhere across the country. This apart, spurious drugs are not only seriously endangering public health, but robbing the people of huge sums of money. According to an estimate the fake drugs amount to 20 per cent of the total pharma production of Rs.83000 crores annually, adding enormously to the health woes of the people already under growing privatization of health care expenditure all around.  

According to the latest reports available there are around two lakhs quacks in the country of which 50,000 have been found in Delhi alone. And all this is only a tip of the iceberg reveals Dr. Girish Tyagi, Registrar of the Delhi Medical Council. Over the past one year, the Medical Council of India (MCI) had registered 41 FIRs in fake medical degree cases across the country. Worse, in Delhi there has been no conviction in such cases despite the Delhi Medical Council Act being in existence since 1997.

Faced with the situation, the MCI asserts that there is an urgency to pass the first comprehensive anti-quackery legislation it prepared way back in 2003. Sadly, the draft has since been gathering dust in the Health Ministry’s headquarter, Nirman Bhawan.

Besides, this past one year alone, health authorities had detected 20 fake doctors operating in some of the most reputed hospitals in and around the Union capital. “We found the trend prevalent and immediately tipped off the Director General Health Services, Delhi to instruct the hospitals in the region to get their doctors verified. The verification drive yielded shocking results. We registered FIRs in all these cases for fake medical certificates registration. Most of these fake doctors are now out of the hospital system,” Dr Tyagi added. However, he conceded that this might be the tip of the iceberg, considering that two lakh fake doctors (quacks) are in operation in the Indian medical system.

MCI authorities admit that rates of conviction under the existing anti-quackery provisions are negligible. Likewise, according to the Indian Medical Association, the largest organization of non-government doctors in India, “more than 50,000 quacks work in Delhi playing with the lives of innocent, poor and common people. Very little action is being taken against these quacks by the health authorities, which is helping them get away with this illegal practice,” says Dr. Anil Bansal, Convener of the Anti-quackery Cell of the IMA.

The IMA has requested the government “to take strict action against those violating the law and also asked for strong anti-quackery law and action to be taken against institutions or persons selling fake degrees.” Doctors had also asked the government to persuade chemists not to sell medicines without a proper prescription by an authorized doctor and launch a public awareness programme against such quacks. In addition, the Association has written to the President Pratibha Patil apprising of the menace and urging her to intervene.  

Other than the misery being faced by local patients, Delhi also happened to be a popular medical centre for foreigners, who have of late started coming to India for treatment and what is being termed as “medical tourism”. Clearly, Delhi cannot afford to have so many quacks, warns an anguished IMA.

With the numbers growing, the DGHS has finally decided to act and in an encouraging step, the Capital’s chief district medical officers have been given 90 days notice by the Directorate to list and start taking strict action against quacks.

However, the DGHS must remember that it is not just quackery that is threatening the public health. Equally or even more dangerous is the wide prevalence of fake drugs in the country, estimated by the World Health Organisation to be 20 per cent of the total production valued at Rs.85000 crores. This not only constitutes a serious drain on public money, but also puts people’s health at great risk.

As we all are quite familiar, the government normally takes an easy way out of forming committees to look into the problems staring it in its face. Here too, in the past a number of commissions and committees of official and non-official experts had been set up to deal with this menace. Regrettably not only to no avail but that the extent of spurious drugs had further increased.  

In addition, the MCI has again written to the Union Health Ministry seeking legislation to regulate the pharmaceutical industry’s practice of giving freebies to doctors to influence their prescribing habits. While the MCI has no jurisdiction over the pharma industry, it has only the Health Ministry to look up to. “The MCI’s ban on doctors accepting gifts, travel facilities and hospitality of any kind from any pharmaceutical or allied health care industry will only apply to doctors. But the pharmaceutical industry is also a party to such transaction and hence the Government of India needs to bring legislation to restrain pharmaceutical companies from these types of activities,” says the MCI President, Dr Ketan Desai.

Recently, Union Health Minister, Ghulam Nabi Aazd, has taken a number of measures, including further increase in the quantum of punishment for the offenders. He appears to be hopeful that his scheme for handsomely awarding the whistleblowers in this regard is likely to pay dividends. However, the problem is not so simple as the Ministry thinks it is. Its results do not seem to be so encouraging from the situation so far.

Indeed, the fake drugs business has entrenched itself so deeply in the country that one might say that some time more must be given to assess the full import of the Ministry’s scheme. Undoubtedly, the scourge of quacks and fake drugs will have to be challenged with strong actions by all those involved and the net will have to be spread far and wide. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)