Outsourcing the best option for the Military to reduce corruption

'Private sector can ease Indian Army's maintenance burden'
New Delhi,Business/Economy,Defence/Security, Tue, 02 Oct 2012 IANS
New Delhi, Oct 2 (IANS) MRO (maintenance, repair, overhaul) is a concept hitherto confined to the civilian aviation sector. Now, an industry lobby is promoting this as a means by which the Indian Army can cut down its maintenance costs and improve its operational preparedness.
"A modern army's equipment readiness has to be sustained at high levels to meet the demands of a complex and uncertain operating environment. This becomes crucial since the Indian Army is looking at capabilities for quick deployment, reducing repair cycle time, inventory overhang and repair costs," an official of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) explained.
"The Indian Army's modernisation strategy is focused on acquiring capabilities that will enable it to succeed in any operation today or in the future. Operational sustainment of weapon systems aims to retain these capabilities throughout its lifecycle.
"The proliferation of land weapon systems across the complete spectrum in the military necessitates effective implementation and integration of an MRO environment so as to keep the user in a state of mission readiness 24x7," the official said. Toward this end, FICCI and the Indian Army's Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) Monday announced that the first international seminar on MRO in Land Systems would be held in New Delhi on Dec 3-4.
The seminar aims to institutionalise measures for the Indian Army adopting MRO for its land systems "through forging strong public private partnerships, so as to ensure military equipment meets operational requirements in a cost effective manner", the official said.
The seminar will bring together MRO domain experts, IT solution providers and stakeholders from industry, including policymakers, regulators and manufacturers, to deliberate on and help evolve the MRO policy systems for land systems that will achieve the stated objectives of mission readiness.
Private sector can ease Indian Army's maintenance burden
Comment: The Local Purchase in the Military is resorted due to NA (non availability) of stores. Generally this cycle of operation is meant to defraud the exchequer- inflated bills, bribes, commissions- resulting in poor quality or substandard products or stores with 100% failure rate within a few months. Encouraging this practise is anti- national and let down of our troops. There are numerous scandals like tents, boots, blankets, motor vehicle parts, spurious stationery, defence stores, the list is endless. Even grants for training is fudged. The prime reason for failing and falling standards of troops.

Commanding Heights: Indian Economy

Unlike Mahatma Gandhi, who supported an agrarian economy, after India's independence in 1947, its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, promoted industrialization. However, he supported government- controlled development, and the bureaucracy that developed stifled innovation. The authors of Commanding Heights sarcastically claim that the British Raj was replaced by a "Permit Raj". Bribery and delays became commonplace in the Indian economy, while at the same time, many prominent economists studied the country and attempted to "fine tune" its central planning.

By the 1990s, the Indian government, mainly due to the influence of finance minister(now Prime Minister) Manmohan Singh, began to relax these stringent regulations, and the Indian economy bloomed under the effects of exports and outsourcing. Political parties since this period have continued to promote these changes; even after the election of a traditionally Marxist government, the free marketer Singh was appointed prime minister.
Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy
Video: Permit Raj

Comments: Can Dr Manmohan Singh rope in the bureaucracy to fight corruption and eliminate the "Permit Raj" attitude and complete his envisioned task?

Can Retired Officers Contribute

The Indian Army is short of twenty percent of its officer strength, and is considering conscription as a solution. The air force and navy are also short, but only by 12-15 percent. But it's not just officers that are hard to get and keep. Technical specialists are in short supply, which is a growing problem as the Army adds more high- tech gear. The basic problem is that the army must compete with the civilian economy for highly trained or educated personnel. The Army maintains high standards for officers, thus trying to eliminate the shortages by more aggressively recruiting young JCOs/ NCOs for officer candidature from Army Cadet College, which has not really worked because many of them cannot pass the entrance exam.

The Sainik Schools are a system of schools in India conceived in 1961 by Krishna Menon to rectify the regional and class imbalance amongst the officer cadre of the Indian armed forces. The inspiration for Sainik Schools came from the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) which have given India many service chiefs and the public school system of England. Sainik schools can be regarded as the ordinary citizen's public school where deserving students can get high quality education irrespective of their income or class background. The Sainik schools contribution towards Officer cadre is discouraging if not dismal.

The result is best demonstrated by looking at who applies to what school. The elite Indian Institutes of Management gets 200,000 people applying each year, for 1,200 slots. The Indian Military Academy gets only 86 seats filled for 250 vacancies. (The statics may vary depending on cadets who actually report to/ withdraw from the Academy)

The Indian military has long been an all-volunteer force, and had no trouble filling the ranks. But over the last two decades, as the government dismantled controls on business, and privatized many government owned companies, the economy has boomed. There are not enough qualified technical and management people to fill all the skilled jobs. India has been looking at how other nations solve these problems. They have noted American success in outsourcing a lot of support jobs. This is almost a necessity with some high tech specialties, where even civilian firms face shortages. Another American technique, cash bonuses for jobs with shortages, is more difficult as it hampers Modernisation of the country's Armed Forces.

The Nation has a vast reservoir of Retired Officers, can their services be utilised to tide over the present shortages? Can some of the Support Jobs be outsourced to Retired Ex Servicemen?