NEW DELHI: India has allocated 8.3 trillion Indian rupees on military modernization in the budget of 2016-17.
This budget includes 2.49 trillion that would be spending on defence and 3.41 trillion on defence pensions.
The experts claimed that the available funds may not be sufficient to power critical modernization programmes.
India has signed deal with different countries to buy fighter planes, building next-generation of submarines, helicopters, missiles and artillery guns.
Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd) said “I don’t think there’s been a hike at all in real terms, the rupee has fallen against the dollar from 62 to 69. Also, inflation in prices of weapon systems can be around 15%.”
Official claimed that 86 deals worth 150,000 crore are near the final stage of approval.
India is also planning to concentrate on domestic defence market instead of importing defence equipment.
India’s defence Minister also warned domestic industries for improvement.
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported that India is the world’s largest buyer of arms with 14% of global imports.
The report claimed that India’s imports increased by 90% between 2006-10 and 2011-15.
While China and Pakistan ranked 2nd and 4th with global imports of 4.7% and 3.3% respectively.