Articles By Maj Gen Mrinal Suman
FDI in Defence: Dispelling the Myths
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Vol. 28.3 Jul-Sep 2013 | Date: 08 Jul , 2014
India should adopt a flexible FDI policy to import much needed technologies which cannot be mastered through indigenous efforts in the acceptable time frame. Unfortunately, every time the issue...
India Pays Dearly for Poorly Negotiated Arms Deals
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Vol 23.3 Jul-Sep 2008 | Date: 07 Jul , 2014
It has recently been reported in the Israeli press that India paid more than double the amount for the purchase of three AWACS aircraft from Israel in March 2004. These aircraft were earlier being...
Shortage of Officers in the Services
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Vol 23.2 Apr-Jul 2008 | Date: 02 Jul , 2014
Currently, the Indian Army is facing a shortage of 11,238 officers, a huge 24.1 percent of its authorization of 46,615 officers. The other two services face similar problems. The situation seems...
Blacklisting Foreign Vendors
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Vol. 23.4 Oct-Dec 2008 | Date: 28 Jun , 2014
India has a penchant for blacklisting foreign arms producers without considering negative effects it has on India’s military preparedness. This is the reasons why recent reports of...
Superseded Officers: Handle them with Compassion
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Date: 21 Jun , 2014
It is the saddest sight in any social gathering to find all superseded officers huddled together in a corner. They appear more comfortable interacting with each other, stay in the background and...
India as a defence manufacturing hub
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Vol 26.1 Jan-Mar 2011 | Date: 07 Jun , 2014
Two major defence production related developments that took place nearly a decade ago need to be recalled here at the outset. One, having realised the limitations of the public sector, the...
Private Sector in Defence Production
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Vol 22.3 Jul-Sep 2007 | Date: 04 Jun , 2014
The Government of India has been reiterating its commitment to achieve the much-publicised target of procuring 70 per cent of its defence requirements from indigenous sources by 2010. Despite its...
Withdrawal from Siachen – a manifestation of Prithviraj Chauhan syndrome!
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 08 May , 2014
Siachen is in the news again.Having served at the glacier, one is aware of the ground realities. It is being suggested that ‘demilitarization’ of the glacier will act as a catalyst to foster...
Military: Arrogance of Seniority
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 14 Apr , 2014
Search for recognition is one of the pursuits which all human beings indulge in and continuously strive for. For professionals, promotions and advancement in career are important aspects of their...
Plight of Women in the US Military
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 23 Dec , 2013
The Indian armed forces are often chided for not increasing the intake of women in the services. Many self-proclaimed activists go to the ludicrous extent of accusing the Indian military of male...
A New Low in Army Leadership
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 19 Oct , 2013
The dawn of 20 September 2013 will long be remembered for the headlines of a national daily of suspect credentials screaming “Unit setup by V K Singh used secret funds to try and topple J&K...
New Procurement Procedure and DRDO
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Vol. 28.2 Apr-Jun 2013 | Date: 09 Sep , 2013
New amendments to DPP assign a position of pre-eminence to DRDO. It will exercise total control over sub-categorisation of development cases and decide as to what all projects it should undertake....
Defence Acquisitions: Risk Management — Better Than Crisis Management
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Vol. 28.1 Jan-Mar 2013 | Date: 02 Jul , 2013
It is very rare that a defence acquisition programme follows the planned timelines. There are a number of reasons for the same. Over-ambitious and impractical production estimates pose major...
Senior leadership and ‘any peg in any hole’ syndrome
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 29 May , 2013
The news of the posting of General David Petraeus as Commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan must have been received with a certain degree of disbelief by the status-conscious Indian...
Aggressive Chinese designs and India's utter timidity...
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 14 May , 2013
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, after holding talks with his counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on 09 May 2013, told reporters that there was still no clarity on the reasons behind the...
Culpability for Wastage of Funds by the Army Commanders
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Date: 29 Oct , 2012
Elements inimical to the services are at it once again. Senior army commanders are being accused of wasting crores of rupees through improper purchases made under Special Financial Powers of the...
How Bharat Electronics Dodges the Issues!
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 28 May , 2012
During the presentation made to the Feasibility Study Committee on 11 Feb 2009, a Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU) announced that it had executed orders worth 4,100 crore rupees during the...
Selection of the Army Chief
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Net Edition | Date: 10 Feb , 2012
The recent debate about the date of birth of the Army Chief has been highly skewed, ill-informed and subjective in nature. It is being said that the order of ‘succession’ would get changed in...
Protecting Public Sector Shipyards
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Vol. 26.3 July - Sept 2011 | Date: 07 Nov , 2011
India wants to develop its warship building capacity at an exponential rate. It is well nigh impossible for DPSU shipyards to meet the complete requirement of the Navy and the Coast Guard in the...
The communication gap in Defence Procurement
By: Maj Gen Mrinal Suman | Issue: Vol. 26.3 July - Sept 2011 | Date: 27 Oct , 2011
Despite repeated assertions of the Government that the huge potential of the private sector must be tapped to achieve self sufficiency in defence production, little progress has been achieved on...