No big bang in defence budget

NEW DELHI: India’s military modernization will continue in its typical slow, haphazard manner without any big bangs, with the overall defence outlay registering a modest 9.5% hike over the last fiscal’s budgetary estimates and 6.3% over the revised ones.
The defence budget was pegged at Rs 6.8 lakh crore ($79 billion), which works out to just 1.9% of the projected GDP for 2025-26 when at least 2.5% is needed to effectively deal with the collusive threat from China and Pakistan.
The capital expenditure for military modernization or acquisitions as well as creation of infrastructure assets and R&D stood at Rs 1.8 lakh crore, which is a meagre 4.6% jump from the last fiscal’s outlay of Rs 1.7 lakh crore. Moreover, the defence ministry has returned Rs 12,500 crore as unspent under this head.
The revenue outlay of Rs 3.1 lakh crore for day-to-day operational costs, sustenance and salaries of the over 14-lakh strong armed forces and defence civilians, in turn, also continues to be almost double the capital one. The huge pension bill, in turn, is Rs 1.6 lakh crore for the 34 lakh ex-servicemen and defence civilians, which saw a 13.9% jump.
On the modernization front, there are some big-ticket defence deals in the offing, which require payments in instalments over several fiscals, like 26 Rafale-Marine fighters (Rs 63,000 crore) and three additional Scorpene submarines (Rs 38,000 crore) from France as well as indigenous ones like 156 Prachand light combat helicopters (Rs 53,000 crore) and 307 advanced towed artillery gun systems (Rs 8,500 crore).
The armed forces, however, continue to grapple with major operational shortfalls on several fronts, ranging from fighters, submarines and helicopters to advanced air defence missiles, anti-tank guided missiles and night-fighting capabilities.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh, on his part, said, “The capital outlay of 1,80,000 crore on defence forces will further help in the modernisation, technological advancement and capabilities of our defence forces.”
A MoD official added that the defence allocation for 2025-26 amounts to 13.4% of the Union budget, which is the highest among all the ministries. “Of the capital acquisitions budget, 75% (Rs 1.1 lakh crore) is earmarked for procurement through domestic sources,” he said.
The allocation for DRDO in the budget has been increased to Rs 26,817 crore from the earlier Rs 23,856 crore. “Out of this, a major share of Rs 14,924 crore has been allocated for capital expenditure and to fund the R&D projects. This will help in developing new technologies with special focus on fundamental research and handholding of the private parties through development-cum-production partner mode,” he said.
The Border Roads Organization, in turn, got Rs 7,146 crore “to promote the nation’s strategic interest in border areas by constructing tunnels, bridges and roads”, he added.