Letter to BS: Will the govt do something about the white elephants?

Show the separation of the budget between combatants (who come under the Army, Navy, Air Force Acts) and civilians and we will know where the unionised fat lies

There are several media reports relating to drastic re-organisation of the armed forces, the underlying objective being to increase the tooth to tail ratio. One must, however, caution that a reduction of the forces cannot be sudden. Recall how the Army was reduced from about 2 million to less than 400,000 from 1947-1962 till China gave us a resounding kick. But you cannot increase the strength by more than 2-3 per cent per annum of the normal intake or you will have bottlenecks in promotions and careers. The effectiveness of the current resizing will be known when present colonels become