Defence Budget

The third of a five-part series looks at the state of the Army's weaponry and the need for greater funding to transition to a more state-of-the-art arsenal

The first of a five-part series analyses the military's capex demand versus allocation. The recent report of the parliamentary standing committee on defence provides the backdrop

The capital budget of the Indian Army should be increased to facilitate enhancing its deterrent capacity to ward off challenges from the two "hostile" neighbours, a parliamentary panel has said in an apparent reference to Pakistan and China. The committee appreciated the efforts made by the Defence Ministry towards the indigenisation of military platforms and hoped that the country would see "100 per cent contract value" going to Indian vendors in the years ahead. Referring to the challenges before the Army, the parliamentary standing committee cited proxy wars, in an apparent reference to Pakistan-backed cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. The committee was of the view that funds slated for modernisation of the armed forces should always be incremental. "The committee also desired that there should be a separate allocation for committed liabilities and new schemes, under the modernisation/capital budget," it said. The report of the panel was tabled in the Lok Sabha on ..

Foreign media should look at their own countries' military expansions before hyping the "China threat" theory, analysts said

Actual defence spending during the year will rise to $225 billion, a single-digit budget increase for the eighth consecutive year

China on Sunday hiked its defence budget by 7.2 per cent, marginally higher than last year, to 1.55 trillion yuan (about USD 225 billion), marking the eighth consecutive year of increase in its military spending. China, last year, pegged its defence budget at 1.45 trillion yuan, a 7.1 per cent increase. This year the defence spending is increased to 1.55 trillion yuan. However, in view of the appreciation of the dollar against the yuan, this year's defence spending of China totalled, according to the state-run China Daily, about USD 225 billion. Last year, in dollar terms China's defence spending amounted to USD 230 billion. This is for the eighth consecutive year that China has announced a single-digit percentage point increase in its military budget. In his work report presented to the opening session of the National People's Congress (NPC) - the country's rubber-stamp parliament - outgoing Premier Li Keqiang spoke highly of the armed forces' achievements at the borders without

China on Sunday announced a 7.2 per cent increase in its defence budget for the coming year, just .1 per cent higher than in 2022. That marks the eighth consecutive year of single-digit percentage increases in what is now the world's second-largest military budget. The 2023 figure was given as 1.55 trillion yuan (USD 224 billion). Along with the world's biggest standing army, China has the world's largest navy and recently launched its third aircraft carrier. According to the US, it also has the largest aviation force in the Indo-Pacific, with more than half of its fighter planes consisting of fourth or fifth generation models. China also boasts a massive stockpile of missiles, along with stealth aircraft, bombers capable of delivering nuclear weapons, advanced surface ships and nuclear powered submarines.

Under Xi Jinping's leadership, China has continued to significantly expand and overhaul its military

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday urged the 30 member countries to commit to spending at least 2 per cent of their gross domestic product on defense by a set date, as Russia's war on Ukraine and other threats eat into military spending. NATO allies agreed in 2014, after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, to halt the spending cuts they had made after the Cold War and move toward spending 2 per cent of GDP on their defence budgets by 2024. That pledge expires next year, and NATO is working on a new target. What is obvious is that if it was right to commit to spend 2 per cent in 2014, it is even more right now because we live in a more dangerous world, Stoltenberg told reporters, after chairing a meeting of NATO defence ministers, where a first high-level discussion on the issue was held. There is a full-fledged war going on in in Ukraine, in Europe, and then we see the persistent threat of terrorism, and we see also the challenges that China is forcing to o

There is a need to streamline allocations and make the budgetary document less complicated to assess its true impact

Allocations made for capital expenditure must increase if India is to keep pace with China's rising military might

Inadequate budgets, delays in placing orders and then in construction, poorly coordinated delivery schedules, and the China factor present manifold challenges for the navy, notes T N Ninan

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has required cabinet Ministers to increase the nation's defence budget to around 2 per cent of GDP in the fiscal year of 2027

Amid rising tensions with China, Taiwan's defence budget is set to go up by 13.9 per cent next year, according to a proposal announced by the Cabinet on Thursday

The total value of defence offset commitment that needed to be implemented over the last 15 years has been estimated at USD 6.83 billion, the government said in Lok Sabha on Friday.

The budget showed that debt servicing has risen to 29.1 per cent of the budget, making it the single largest expenditure and accounting for 45.4 per cent of the current expenditure

China's hike in defence spending comes amid the People's Liberation Army's growing incidents of muscle-flexing in the strategic Indo-Pacific region

The hike is over three times that of India's defence budget of Rs 5.25 trillion (about $70 billion) for 2022.

The Defence Ministry will create a panel with representatives from all three services to monitor its budget spending so that it is fully utilised in time, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday. The government's commitment to reducing imports and modernising armed forces with indigenous technology has been given further impetus in this budget, he said in his speech during a post-budget webinar. Singh said he is sure that the Defence Ministry has noted all the valuable suggestions received and deliberated during the webinar and has also drawn an action plan for time-bound implementation of the budget announcements for atmanirbharta (self-reliance) in defence. "For promoting industry-led research and development (R&D) efforts, I would sanction at least five projects under Make-I during the financial year 2022-23," he mentioned. Projects under 'Make-I' category involve government funding of 90 per cent, released in a phased manner and based on the progress of the scheme, as ...

Even as the total allocation has increased, it has fallen as a percentage of GDP