There is general perception in some quarters of Indian armed forces that budget allocation is not sufficient to meet the capital acquisitions for armed forces. There is no doubt that capabilities of Indian armed forces need to be further strengthen in terms of  acquisition of  state of art weapons, equipment and other supplies considering the strength of perceived adversaries.

 However, in order to speed up the acquistion process, there is greater need for demand side management in military acquisitions. In the recent past, most of the time, budget allocated have not fully utilised especially for capital acquisitions. Demand for enhanced budget is only justified when in previous years budgets have been fully spent. Many failure of capital acquisitions and consequently non utilization of budget are due to real or perceived corruption cases in defence acquisitions. Real corruption starts while framing the GSQR.  There is a tendency to make GSQR/specifications that favours importation rather than taking the same from OFB, DPSUs even though contemporary technologies exists with these organizations. And moreover, in importation also  a particular firms  is favoured by making specifications in such a way that it suits the specifications of existing weapon, equipment and supplies of  that particular firm only and others get eliminated on flimsy ground.

Specifications/GSQRs should be made on generic requirements and not on whims and fancies of some individual sitting at the top in military. It should be based on generic requirements of theater of war in which our defence forces are more likely to operate, military capabilities of perceived adversaries, military intelligence etc. While framing the GSQR, views of all stakeholders including leading manufacturer of defence equipment and weapon should also be taken into consideration. If the issues relating to demand side management of defence acquisitions are not addressed properly neither indigenous defence manufacturing capabilities will develop nor import acquisitions will take place.