About the Book: In Hard Times: Security in an Era of Insecurity
Since the mid 1990s, Indian thinking on national security has been based on the
assumption that the country would progress on a growth trajectory sufficient to
modernise its defence capacities--and thereby enable some form of parity with a
rising China.
The reality has been otherwise. China spectacular growth and accompanying
military modernisation has hugely outpaced that of India. The Indian military
modernisation has moved fitfully. In the past several years, budgets have
committed less than 2 per cent of GDPthe lowest levels since the war of
1962—for the military. Even if spending were to