We're using quantity to compensate for quality, and India’s defence budget can't increase too much. Army has a chance to bring about long-term reforms.
China’s 2022 defence budget is over thrice the size of India’s spending. In 2021, China’s defence spending crossed $200 bn for the first time. This year, it’s up to $229.7 bn.
Many countries have announced defence budget hikes, with Germany ending decades-old freeze. But ambitions will have to be balanced with legacy of underspending, capacity issues.
A Group of Ministers, set up in 2000, after the Kargil conflict, had first recommended setting up “an apex body for the management of maritime affairs”.
Overall defence budget for 2022-23 stands at Rs 5.25 lakh crore, up from Rs 4.78 lakh crore in 2021-22. Defence budget is 13.3% of total expenditure planned by Centre for 2022-23.
Govt procedures that masquerade as safety nets for minimising financial loss can only stifle innovation. Modi govt's well-intentioned iDEX scheme seems headed that way.
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.
Over the last 10 years, the share of the defence budget spent on capital outlay has declined, from a high of 30% in 2011-12 to as low as 22% in 2018-19.
Dice have been found dating to the Bronze Age in various Harappan sites in present-day northwest India and throughout Pakistan. And it’s very possible that some had female owners.
This world is being restructured and redrawn by one man, and what’s his power? It’s not his formidable military. It’s trade. With China, it turned on him.
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