Bharat Karnad is Emeritus Professor for National Security Studies, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi and Distinguished Fellow at the United Service Institution of India. His most recent book, Staggering Forward: Narendra Modi and India’s Global Ambition was published by Penguin in September 2018. Previous books include Why India is Not a Great Power (Yet) (Oxford University Press, October 2015), Strategic Sellout: India-US Nuclear Deal (2009), India’s Nuclear Policy (Praeger, 2008), Nuclear Weapons and Indian Security: The Realist Foundations of Strategy, now in its second edition (Macmillan, 2005, 2002), and Future Imperilled: India’s Security in the 1990s and Beyond (Viking-Penguin, 1994).
He was Member of the (First) National Security Advisory Board, Member of the Nuclear Doctrine-drafting Group, National Security Council, Government of India, and, formerly, Advisor on Defence Expenditure to the Finance Commission, India.
Educated at the University of California (B.A., Santa Barbara; M.A., Los Angeles), he has been a Visiting Scholar at Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, and Foreign Fellow at the Shanghai Institutes of International Studies and the Henry L. Stimson Centre, Washington, DC. He lectures at the top military training and discussion forums, including CORE (Combined Operational Review and Evaluation), DRDO Annual Directors’ Conference, National Defence College, Higher Command Courses at the Army War College, College of Air Warfare, College of Naval Warfare, College of Defence Management, College of Military Engineering, and at Army Command and Corps level fora and equivalent in the other two Armed Services, and Defence Services Staff College, and also at the Indian Administrative Service Academy, Foreign Service Institute, and the National Police Academy.
He was commissioned by the Headquarters, Integrated Defence Staff, Ministry of Defence, to conceptualize, conduct for several years, and lecture at the annual Strategic Nuclear Orientation Course for Brigadier-rank officers and equivalent from the three Armed Services, and conceived and conducted the first ever high-level inter-agency war game on the nuclear tripwire in the subcontinent (at the Army War College, 2003).
0:00 Beware of USA
3:25 Indian Navy Vs Chinese Navy
5:48 Big lie of ‘Make in India’ in defence
7:18 How Govt mistreats Defence MSMEs
8:31 Brilliant Indian defence companies
10:34 Nehru did two great things
11:55 When Nehru hired a Nazi for Make in India
15:24 Nehru & Menon’s big blunder
18:08 What Bharat Karnad advised Modi
21:07 Modi needs to learn this from US
25:49 No reforms in Ordnance Factories
28:24 Problem with Generalist Civil Servants
30:46 Lie of Negative Import Lists
32:09 No First Use is of No Use
36:33 Why Agniveer is failing
42:05 How Agniveer should be reformed
45:50 Biggest problem with Agniveer
51:26 Retired soldiers as police & paramilitary?
52:40 Why Indian Army young officers lead from the front
55:15 Let ITBP be ITBP
56:37 Biggest drawback of Agniveer
57:35 Indian Army Vs Indian govt
1:01:39 Why US is working against India
1:03:50 India is NOT ready for war
1:07:31 Why India isn’t increasing defence budget
1:07:57 S Jaishankar & his father