Like every year, once again expectations are high from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for a higher defence allocation in this Budget so that our armed forces can have more power to face the twin challenge posed by China and Pakistan.While India's defence budget is now the fourth largest in the world (after US, China and UK), and the Modi government publicly follows an aggressive defence policy, but when it comes to defence spending, the budget allocations paint a different picture.In the last year's Budget, defence spending received the smallest chunk of 12.22 per cent out of total budget outlay in the last two decades. There has been a steady decline from 3.18 per cent of GDP spent on defence in 1988 to half of that now at nearly 1.6 per cent against a global standard of 2-2.5 per cent. Ironically, 1.5 million Indian Army is also facing a shortage of 11,000 officers. So, instead of just recruiting jawans, India could use this opportunity to reshape the Indian armed forces into a leaner, well-equipped military.To achieve this, it can even take a leaf out of rival China's book. Besides, underutilisation of funds has also become a recurring feature of India's defence budget with armed forces surrendering nearly Rs 7,000 crore in last couple of years.Thus it seems practical to not only increase the defence allocation but also 'right-size' the Indian Army, as recommended by Lt. Gen. (retd) DB Shekatkar committee, set up by previous defence minister Manohar Parrikar.

Source: Economic Times January 22, 2018 06:56 UTC