Editorial: Inadequate defence budget

The overall allocation for defence stood at Rs 5.94 lakh crore, a hike of 13% over last year.

Hyderabad: A modest increase in the annual defence budget allocation, made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Budget 2023-24, has come as a big disappointment. The overall allocation for defence stood at Rs 5.94 lakh crore, a hike of 13% over last year. The capital outlay pertaining to modernisation and infrastructure development has been pegged at Rs 1,62,000 crore, which is only a marginal rise of 6.7% over the previous year. Since most of the expenditure on weapons and spare parts imports is done in foreign currency, this modest rise in budgetary provisions is neutralised by the recent sharp devaluation of Indian rupee against the US dollar. Unfortunately, this comes at a time when the country is facing growing challenges from Pakistan and China. The Navy, in particular, is bound to be affected, as it has some major platforms in the pipeline. The procurement of Rafale-M jets for the aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, and Project-75I for submarine acquisition will almost certainly be put on hold this year. The Air Force, too, will have to delay plans for acquiring more fighter planes and upgrading existing Sukhoi jets. High pension budget is one of the key reasons for the reduced allocations to other defence-related requirements. The pension outlay has been increased this year to Rs 1.38 lakh crore, up from Rs 1.19 lakh crore last year, owing mainly to the announcement of the implementation of “one-rank-one-pension.”

The funding for research and development is another area of concern. The new budget’s allocation for the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is Rs 23,264 crore, a mere increase of 9% from the previous year’s budget. The marginal increases in R&D spending will only lead to protracted troubles in cutting edge technology development. The defence ministry’s Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), billed as the flagship for technological innovation, has been allotted a meagre Rs 116 crore. With over 100 contracts signed, the iDEX looks promising but will need more funding to produce results. The fate of the Technology Development Fund (TDF) scheme, established by the defence ministry last year to support the indigenous development of components, products, systems and technologies by small and medium enterprises and startups, remains unclear. The lack of funding has been a persistent problem in the modernisation of the military. Mounting security challenges before India requires a proportionate defence preparedness, but over the years India’s defence modernisation has been moving at a very slow pace. Lack of budgetary provisions has forced the armed forces to give priority to filling the critical gaps first. Most of the weapon systems and platforms are ageing as some of them were acquired way back in the 1970s. In 2018, it was estimated that 68% of our equipment is in the vintage category, with just 24% in the current category and 8% in state-of-the-art category.

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