Modi govt's capital budget allocation for 2021-22 is lower than the amount armed forces had sought in 2014-15. But spending more is not the answer, spending right is.
In episode 618 of #CutTheClutter, ThePrint's Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta highlights military lessons from Armenia-Azerbaijan war, and their significance for India.
US State dept says Armenia & Azerbaijan foreign ministers met Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun Saturday and agreed to abide by the terms of cease-fire negotiated on 10 Oct.
The worst violence in decades over Nagorno-Karabakh is in its fourth week with no sign of easing, amid reports of intense fighting close to Azerbaijan’s border with Iran.
It’s the second truce brokered by Russia this month that has failed to stop fighting between the countries over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan's foreign affairs ministry suggested that Armenia was responsible for the shelling. The two countries have been fighting over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Munir indicates that he’s willing to go for broke, even if it risks taking his country “and half the world” down with him. It’s important to understand where he is coming from.
India’s industrial output growth saw a 10-month low in June, with Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growing by mere 1.5% as against 1.9% in May 2025.
Gen Dwivedi framed Op Sindoor not just as retaliation to Pahalgam, but as demonstration of India’s capability to fight multi-domain conflicts with integration between services & agencies.
Standing up to America is usually not a personal risk for a leader in India. Any suggestions of foreign pressure unites India behind who they see as leading them in that fight.
Request the editor to hire writers with a modicum of understanding of the subject. The only takeaway was “spend right”. Neither problem nor solution was defined nor expanded on.
And then Print asks for money to support ts journalism. This is clickbaiting of the finest order.
5 mins of my time I’ll never get back.
India never cared for its military. it always lacked in equipment, arms ammunition, facilities, pay and perks and was always on receiving end. Ad hoc measures was the way and crisis management became order of the day although India is surrounded by enemies like china, Pakistan apart from internal enemies. Tukde gangs, communists, nagas, militants in kashmir .. No miracle can be
expected. Priorities, are different. Govt spends lot of money for welfare measures and free bees.
Hum kaya andhe he Ajerbejaian ke adhi muslim mulk piche khare thee, hum agaar budget kam karde defense mei adhee muslim mulk toot pare ga hindustan par, kiu ki tum jaise, the wire, caravan, print gaddaar ki kami nahi he desh me,
Azerbaijan: Area 86.600 sq km : Borders Land 2660 kms: Sea – negligible on the inland waterbody – Caspian Sea.
India: Area : Area 3.287 sq km : Borders Land 14788.1 km (of different terrains) : Sea: 7516 kms: in addition we have to watch over the Indian Ocean area.
“Quality” to cover 1 km may not be the same as “quality” to cove 100 kms… It is simplistic to presume matters of Defence from a desk.
Tail piece: Quality is not all pervasive here. There are many variables specific to conditions, situation, terrain erc.. to determine that.
No need to learn from anyone, much less from a country like Azerbaijan, which is 95% Muslim. Moreover we are VishwaGuru. It’s another thing that some people believe that we are VishwaGORU.
OMG!!….nice words to say naah, PROPAGANDA!!… atleast they are not bikau…& Which sources do u trust, my friend?…Zee news…jisne kha tha GPS chip in new currency notes.
Mahn, grow up…koi bhi agr kuch dikhaye that doesn’t suit u guys to shut krne ki baat mt kro yrr….. already freedom of speech ka star itna niche kr diya h tumhare leaders ne sb kuch band krke….??
print caravan, wire etc. are bikau.
they have sold thier soul to some middle east desert cults, not 1, 2 cults, world’s most prosetlyzing, and 1 is terrorizing too
Any procurement should be based on capabilities of our adversaries and threat perception. It should also be decided by the armed forces based on the situation on the ground. The tactics used by our immediate neighbours are not the same as Azerbaijan and Armenia. When we have our adversaries using small drones to drop off weapons, money and drugs inside our borders, we cannot have big armed drones like Bayraktars or Harops to shoot them down. India is purchasing Harop btw & it will be used as deemed fit by our forces
a gdp that has been declining by 1% every year since 2016 has a reason, it’s called “Modi”. Countries with the strongest economies have the strongest militaries, the navy was planning to have a 200 ship strong force, but that is continually being reduced. Modi’s master plan for making money is to raise fuel, lpg, railway ticket prices, cesses and reduce take home salaries. The only people proud of him are a couple of idiot trolls as can be seen in the comments section. Military will never become stronger with Modi the economic disaster, the only country that has managed to do so is Pakistan which is literally now just a beggar with a machine gun. From the looks of it Modi will make India another Pakistan
Let us overreact to what happened between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Such attacks had a novelty about it and Armenia was not ready for it or it did not anticipate them. Of course, we need to study and appreciate what has happened there and draw right lessons from it.
Such strategy may perhaps be somewhat useful against Pak when we actually have some sort of battle but that may not happen at all, We badly need drones for surveillance etc and we need to spend smart. DRDO is already developing many innovative weapons using drone and we should develop all round capabilities to take on both China and Pakistan.
You needed Chinese and their virus to wake the Govt from slumber and focus on indigenisation and upgradation of defence equipment. Hopefully this momentum is carried forward and not restricted to mere sloganeering…….
The author clearly does not understand what Indian Defence budget issues are or what our procurement policy is.. Israel is already one of largest suppliers and suggesting that we should buy from Turkey because someone else does shows lack of understanding of where we stand as a country geo politically visa via Turkey. Next me might suggest buy cheaper from China!
Yeah it is important. It will continue to be important for India under the Chinese and Pakistani rule if the military is neglected because of the continuous neglect the military is facing under every regime.
Spending smart on military when budget is thin is not adequate the spends must be clean as well.
Let us not try to learn to be clean buyers from either Armenia or Azerbaijan, where even doctors need to be bribed a packet of coffee to get proper treatment.
India’s threat perception is China When you have super power as threat perception,it is both spending big as well as smart.Without big spending smart alone will be of no use.If only smart is required lets rest the army and diplomacy to take on
Request the editor to hire writers with a modicum of understanding of the subject. The only takeaway was “spend right”. Neither problem nor solution was defined nor expanded on.
And then Print asks for money to support ts journalism. This is clickbaiting of the finest order.
5 mins of my time I’ll never get back.
Spend on education instead, so that more peoples get educated and wisely elect educated leaders.
Too many bhakts leaving comments
India never cared for its military. it always lacked in equipment, arms ammunition, facilities, pay and perks and was always on receiving end. Ad hoc measures was the way and crisis management became order of the day although India is surrounded by enemies like china, Pakistan apart from internal enemies. Tukde gangs, communists, nagas, militants in kashmir .. No miracle can be
expected. Priorities, are different. Govt spends lot of money for welfare measures and free bees.
Hum kaya andhe he Ajerbejaian ke adhi muslim mulk piche khare thee, hum agaar budget kam karde defense mei adhee muslim mulk toot pare ga hindustan par, kiu ki tum jaise, the wire, caravan, print gaddaar ki kami nahi he desh me,
Well; write anything anyhow? Just one point….
Azerbaijan: Area 86.600 sq km : Borders Land 2660 kms: Sea – negligible on the inland waterbody – Caspian Sea.
India: Area : Area 3.287 sq km : Borders Land 14788.1 km (of different terrains) : Sea: 7516 kms: in addition we have to watch over the Indian Ocean area.
“Quality” to cover 1 km may not be the same as “quality” to cove 100 kms… It is simplistic to presume matters of Defence from a desk.
Tail piece: Quality is not all pervasive here. There are many variables specific to conditions, situation, terrain erc.. to determine that.
No need to learn from anyone, much less from a country like Azerbaijan, which is 95% Muslim. Moreover we are VishwaGuru. It’s another thing that some people believe that we are VishwaGORU.
In tamil there is a saying…dai nee ellam solralavuku nanga tharam ketupoitoma…..perfectly fits to tge author…
First cut down on vote catching schemes next cut down six and eight planning of HWs and we can have the most powerful armed forces in the world
Wire, Print, Quint all these should be shut. They are just creating propaganda
OMG!!….nice words to say naah, PROPAGANDA!!… atleast they are not bikau…& Which sources do u trust, my friend?…Zee news…jisne kha tha GPS chip in new currency notes.
Mahn, grow up…koi bhi agr kuch dikhaye that doesn’t suit u guys to shut krne ki baat mt kro yrr….. already freedom of speech ka star itna niche kr diya h tumhare leaders ne sb kuch band krke….??
print caravan, wire etc. are bikau.
they have sold thier soul to some middle east desert cults, not 1, 2 cults, world’s most prosetlyzing, and 1 is terrorizing too
Any procurement should be based on capabilities of our adversaries and threat perception. It should also be decided by the armed forces based on the situation on the ground. The tactics used by our immediate neighbours are not the same as Azerbaijan and Armenia. When we have our adversaries using small drones to drop off weapons, money and drugs inside our borders, we cannot have big armed drones like Bayraktars or Harops to shoot them down. India is purchasing Harop btw & it will be used as deemed fit by our forces
a gdp that has been declining by 1% every year since 2016 has a reason, it’s called “Modi”. Countries with the strongest economies have the strongest militaries, the navy was planning to have a 200 ship strong force, but that is continually being reduced. Modi’s master plan for making money is to raise fuel, lpg, railway ticket prices, cesses and reduce take home salaries. The only people proud of him are a couple of idiot trolls as can be seen in the comments section. Military will never become stronger with Modi the economic disaster, the only country that has managed to do so is Pakistan which is literally now just a beggar with a machine gun. From the looks of it Modi will make India another Pakistan
@Krn Spot on. Couldn’t agree more.
you are absolutely right
You seem to havemodi phobia
Let us overreact to what happened between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Such attacks had a novelty about it and Armenia was not ready for it or it did not anticipate them. Of course, we need to study and appreciate what has happened there and draw right lessons from it.
Such strategy may perhaps be somewhat useful against Pak when we actually have some sort of battle but that may not happen at all, We badly need drones for surveillance etc and we need to spend smart. DRDO is already developing many innovative weapons using drone and we should develop all round capabilities to take on both China and Pakistan.
Tough competitor for toilet paper
Nope, impossible to dethrone BJP Manifesto from Toilet
Looks like a poor understanding on military spending from the author. Just for the sake of getting a headline, they have written this article
Where do you feel india isn’t spending smart? All nations, including our enemies are spending smart.
Ultimately , it’s the defense budget that helps win a war.
You needed Chinese and their virus to wake the Govt from slumber and focus on indigenisation and upgradation of defence equipment. Hopefully this momentum is carried forward and not restricted to mere sloganeering…….
The author clearly does not understand what Indian Defence budget issues are or what our procurement policy is.. Israel is already one of largest suppliers and suggesting that we should buy from Turkey because someone else does shows lack of understanding of where we stand as a country geo politically visa via Turkey. Next me might suggest buy cheaper from China!
Another case of headline mongering..
This article is least coherent artocpe written by snehesh sir.
Any comparision between 4 bn and 24 bn. Don’t use meaningless examples to prove a point.
No other country has enemies like China,Pakistan and traitors and anti-nationals.India has to battle on all fronts.
Lets not forget that health budget is more important than military…
Yeah it is important. It will continue to be important for India under the Chinese and Pakistani rule if the military is neglected because of the continuous neglect the military is facing under every regime.
Misprint as usual.
Spending smart on military when budget is thin is not adequate the spends must be clean as well.
Let us not try to learn to be clean buyers from either Armenia or Azerbaijan, where even doctors need to be bribed a packet of coffee to get proper treatment.
India’s threat perception is China When you have super power as threat perception,it is both spending big as well as smart.Without big spending smart alone will be of no use.If only smart is required lets rest the army and diplomacy to take on