A static allocation

The nation's defence budget pegged at Rs 2,46,727 crore when viewed in isolation is a staggering amount to be spent on defence. Presenting the budget on Saturday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said he had provided adequately for the needs of the armed forces. While correctly pointing to India's overdependence on foreign vendors for its defence requirements, Jaitley stressed BJP government's 'Make in India' policy in order to achieve greater self-sufficiency in defence equipment, including aircraft.

But as often happens in the case of figures and announcements, the ground reality presents a vastly different picture. The new defence allocation marks a mere 7.74 per cent hike over the 2014-15 budget estimates of Rs 2.3 lakh crore and about 11 per cent hike over the revised estimates. This is 1.75 per cent of the GDP, which is far below the 'desired' percentage of 3. At Rs 94,588 crore, the capital outlay for the next fiscal year is a paltry Rs 5 lakh more than the current fiscal year and is not expected to realise the pressing requirements of the armed forces since a majority of this money is likely to be spent on 'committed liabilities' rather than new acquisitions. There is always the option to seek and obtain more funds, but this has been practised more in theory than reality. In fact, the defence ministry has more often than not ended up having to surrender portions of its capital budget year after year. This year it slashed Rs 12,623 crore from the capital outlay thus affecting new purchases.

The Finance Minister also made no mention of the much promised One Rank One Pension which is likely to have disappointed lakhs of ex-servicemen. India's budget (US$ 40 billion) compares far less with China's last year's defence budget (US$ 130 billion). In contrast to China, India's military-industrial complex and Defence Research and Development Organisation severely lack indigenous capability and is nowhere near building high-end cutting edge technologies such as aircraft engines. Although the defence budget marks a high figure, it is essentially a static allocation. Translating announcements and intentions into action is going to be far  more difficult task than the government reckons.