New Delhi: The Navy faces a shortfall of 10,896 personnel, including 1,777 officers, the central government informed Parliament Friday.
Responding to a question in the Lok Sabha during the ongoing winter session, Minister of State (MoS) for Defence Ajay Bhatt in a written reply said that apart from 1,777 officers, the force was short of 9,119 sailors, according to the ministry’s data until October this year.
He added that the sanctioned strength, excluding medical and dental branches, was 11,979 officers and 76,649 sailors as of October 2023. The Navy, the minister said in his reply, recruited 323 officers and 5,547 sailors in 2021, and 386 officers and 5,171 sailors in 2022.
In response to another question, the minister stated that the ministries of defence and finance are working on a mechanism to enable a special dispensation for the MoD to operationalise a non-lapsable defence modernisation fund.
The government accepted a Finance Commission recommendation in 2021 to create it, which would provide a dedicated pool of money for capital-intensive purchases like fighter jets and warships.
The issue of non-lapsable funds was also raised in the Lok Sabha in March this year, where Bhatt had said that the matter was under consideration with the Ministry of Defence.
The need for such a fund arose due to the irregular defence acquisitions and the gap between the funds allocated by the government and the expense projection by the defence establishment, according to media reports.
On why the fund could not be operationalised yet, the minister replied: “Articles 112-114 & 266 of the Constitution provide that no money can be spent by the Government from Consolidated Fund of India without authorisation through an annual Budget presented before the Parliament. Since authorisation, under the Appropriation Act is meant for that particular financial year, the same does not allow operationalisation of a public fund which is non-lapsable in nature.”
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Technology Development Fund (TDF)
In response to another question, Bhatt said that the ministry had allocated 70 projects worth Rs 291.25 crore under the Technology Development Fund (TDF) scheme, and 16 technologies had been successfully developed under the scheme.
The TDF is a flagship programme of the MoD, executed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The programme was launched in 2016 to promote self-reliance in defence technology as part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
The main objective of the scheme, according to the reply, is to provide grant-in-aid to Indian industries, including MSMEs and startups as well as academic and scientific institutions, for the development of defence and dual-use technologies that are not available in the Indian defence industry. The scheme aims to support futuristic technologies that have a proof of concept and convert them into prototypes, the reply added.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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