Author: Col KV Kuber (Retd)

Will DeMo then have any effect on the Defence Sector? Well yes, a positive effect. The increased budget allocation for the Defence Ministry with an earmarked allocation for defence modernisation and MAKE programmes, the innovative funding mechanism in offsets, reduced cash availability for laundering to sustain a cleaner procurement process, increased exports, increased order flow into domestic companies under the ‘Make in India’ categories of procurement, will all actually boost defence cash flows.

Author: VK Deuskar IPS (Retd) 

In India, the only group of people who pay full income tax are the government servants. In every town or city with a population of 5 lakhs and above there may be at least 500 traders, shopkeepers and businessmen, a majority of whom are liable to pay income tax. In the larger cities, their number is much larger. This large non-tax-paying population needs to be brought into the tax net.

Author: Pavan Duggal 

The year 2017 is further likely to see more discussions on the applicability of international law to cyber warfare issues. Discussions around rules and norms of behaviour in the cyberspace expected from all stakeholders in the cyber ecosystem will increasingly engage the attention of the relevant stakeholders.

Author: Anil Chopra PVSM, AVSM, VM, VSM (Retd)

The world’s biggest democracies finally stand on a shared platform; have some congruence in their world view and most importantly, feel the need to work together on many counts. Aerospace is the real place for joint action. India and the US have taken a conscious first big step and Boeing is the leading partner.

Author: Ravi Kumar Gupta

Demonetisation is expected to have far reaching positive impact in the long run in both quantitative and qualitative terms on economy in general and defence procurements in particular. Whereas demonetisation in itself is just one tool, the extent of impact will largely depend on the way this powerful tool is handled along with determination, efficiency and swiftness with other associated tools needed to weed out corruption.

Author: Cecil Victor

The window of opportunity that opened with demonetisation may not be as wide as expected especially after reports that new notes were recovered from bodies of dead terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir within a few weeks of the monetary ‘surgical strike’. New sensors to make the LoC more transparent will be successful in detecting infiltration only if they are monitored realtime and not be used just like recording machines to be rewound in a postmortem investigation.