Laxman Kumar Behera

The Occasional Paper examines India's defence innovation performance, especially of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the defence industry. The paper argues that the innovation performance of these two players is constrained by lack of a higher organisational structure which could provide direction and required thrust to the indigenous R&D.

• Published: 2014
• IDSA Occasional Papers

• Published: 2013
• Book

The monograph makes an attempt to estimate India’s defence self-reliance index, which has been a subject of intense debate in recent years. It also surveys the key recommendations of various high level committees set up by the Indian government post the Kargil conflict. The monograph concludes with key policy measures to revitalize India’s moribund defence industry.

• Published: 2013
• Monograph

The Monograph provides a comprehensive roadmap for reforming India’s defence offset policy which despite having gone through several rounds of revisions in past decade or so, still lacks effectiveness. The roadmap is based on extensive study of offset practices followed by six countries: Canada, Israel, Malaysia, South Korea, Turkey and the UAE.

• Published: 2015
• Monograph

The outcome of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, held in October 2022, was on predictable lines. It was no surprise that President Xi Jinping was chosen CPC supremo for an unprecedented third time, defying the two-term limit set by Deng Xiaoping to prevent a single person from gaining absolute and autocratic power like Mao Zedong. Xi, considered the most powerful leader in China since Mao, is determined to put China on the ‘rejuvenation’ path and attain superpower status for the Middle Kingdom by mid-century.

• Published: January-February 2023
• Strategic Analysis

With India approaching the 75th year of independence in 2022, there are few institutions that can narrate the roller-coaster journey that the country has taken to become a modern nation. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), a premier research and development (R&D) wing of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), is one such institution. It is due to the persistent and painstaking efforts of DRDO that the country can hold its head high among the comity of nations in key defence and strategic technologies.

• Published: January-March 2022
• Journal of Defence Studies

This article examines India’s defence expenditure over the past ten years. In so doing, it provides a public finance perspective to explain the recurring resource crunch being faced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The article reasons that a substantial augmentation of resources for the MoD in the past has faced stiff barriers due to lack of tax buoyancy and also the political, economic and other exigencies that have led to greater public spending outside the traditional areas of expenses, including defence.

• Published: September 2021
• Strategic Analysis

The negative list of embargoed defence items is one more step towards creating a strong domestic arms industry and making India self-reliant in defence production.

• Published: August 13, 2020
• IDSA Comments

Banning the sale of imported items through the CSD could supplement the various domestic industry-friendly policy measures being taken by the government for a self-reliant India.

• Published: August 11, 2020
• IDSA Comments

While the steps stipulated in draft DAP-2020 to enable smooth acquisition of systems indigenously designed by DRDO and other public sector entities are a right move, they need to be strengthened further to make procedures more robust and conducive for timely completion of projects.

• Published: August 10, 2020
• IDSA Comments