India hikes defence budget to 26.40 billion dollars

[HAIDER]

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NEW DELHI, Feb 29 (AFP) - India on Friday jacked up defence spending by 10 percent to 26.4 billion dollars, the steepest hike since independence to fund a mammoth modernisation programme. Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram boosted expenditure for the fiscal year ending March 2009 from the previous allocation of 24 billion dollars. India plans to spend at least 30 billion dollars until 2012 to modernise the military with an immediate purchase of 126 warjets costing 12 billion dollars followed by ships, submarines, artillery and other hardware in coming years. Chidambaram set aside 12 billion dollars for arms purchases during the current fiscal year. The 1.23-million-strong army, the world's fourth largest, received nine billion dollars to help modernise mechanised divisions, artillery and air defence units. He committed 1.85 billion dollars to the navy which is shopping for six submarines in addition to the six it bought last year for three billion dollars. He also allotted 2.71 billion dollars for the airforce while the remaining funds were marked for research development and ordnance factories which are in the process of deploying India's guided and ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. The increase was likely to be closely monitored in Pakistan which has accused the nuclear rival of sparking an arms race by spending almost three percent of GDP on its million-plus military forces. For the current fiscal year which ends March 31, India increased defence spending by 7.8 percent. (Posted @ 16:25 PST)
- DAWN - Latest Stories; February 29, 2008

[Malang]

does anyone have information on the "invisible budget" of Indian armed forces??

[fatman17]

well i guess they can afford it! we cannot match them $ for $ and therefore we should go for a strategy of "force-multipliers".

[Astra]

Defence budget crosses Rs 1 lakh crore mark - Sify.com

In a clear signal that there would be no let up in the ongoing mammoth
modernisation drive of the armed forces, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that the defence allocation for the coming year would be Rs 1,05,600 crore, a hike of ten percent from last year's allocation of Rs 96,000 crore.

But in actual terms, the hike is 14.16 percent as that of last year as the Defence Ministry could only spend Rs 92,500 crore, leaving a sum of Rs 3,500 crore unspent, apparently due to two major contracts for purchase of helicopters and 155 MM artillery guns not going through.

It was amply clear that the budget will focus on continuing upgradation of armaments with the allocation on capital outlay running into Rs 48,007 crore, a jack up of almost 23.3 per cent over last year's outlay of Rs 37,705 crore.

Capital estimates last year were Rs 41,922 crore of which the Defence Ministry only spent Rs 37,705 crore.

Though there was substantial hike in defence budget, India's defence spending continued to be below two percent of the GDP as compared to Pakistan's 5 percent and China's almost 7 percent.

[Astra]

Its below 2% of GDP, that clearly shows that India is more interested in development.

[mxiong]

China's defence budget is 7% of its GDP? That's a blatant lie! Get the fact straight plz!

https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat.../2034rank.html
List of countries by military expenditures - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Always Neutral]

Some Indian Politicians are going to get very rich this year and move to UK.

Regards

[Malang]

Some Indian Politicians are going to get very rich this year and move to UK.

Regards

they are all already very rich... and why shift to UK??? If I were them I would shift to Monaco or teh Bahamas or better buy my own private island..

[Astra]

Correct, thanks for posting Geniue CIA links.
However, intelligence sources also suggest that China's defence spending is far highter than what is reported.

[Always Neutral]

they are all already very rich... and why shift to UK??? If I were them I would shift to Monaco or teh Bahamas or better buy my own private island..

Many reasons my friend

1. They speak a the same language English ! Monaco you need to speak French.
2. Its tax free for them here just as Monaco.
3. UK is an Island and the richest man here is an Indian.
4. Indians love shopping in Harrods.
5. Their children are already studying or living here.

You just need to see how many of them figure on the london news scene to know that they love UK.

Regards

[BATMAN]

US-India defence deal 'to counter China'
By Rahul Bedi in New Delhi and Richard Spencer, China Correspondent

America is attempting to forge a strategic alliance with India with a series of arms deals as the South Asian nation bolsters its defences against China.

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, will arrive in New Delhi to strike a common position on Beijing with the Indian government.

His arrival comes as New Delhi decides whether the US firms Lockheed Martin and Boeing, or Russian and European rivals, will win a contract to supply the Indian air force with 126 combat aircraft in a £5 billion deal.

But the wider battle is for influence in Asia, with America seeking to shore up a tentative and controversial alliance with what it sees as a democratic counterweight to China.

One senior Indian military official said Washington was hoping to supply up to a quarter of India's military hardware over the next decade as its current stocks, predominantly originating in Russia or the former Soviet Union, become obsolete.

"Washington views Delhi as representing a strategic asset in the Asian region," the official said.

advertisementAmerica has already agreed to help India develop civilian-use nuclear power despite New Delhi's failure to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and its insistence on retaining its nuclear weapons arsenal.

That deal has met an impasse due to opposition from the Indian Communist Party, which sustains the coalition government of Manmohan Singh, the prime minister.

The Communists regard it as a "hegemonic" ploy to "enslave" India.

But many analysts see growing ties as inevitable as a post-Cold War realignment of strategic interests continues.

As the United States and China, which once saw themselves as informal allies against the Soviet Union, eye each other warily, Beijing has aligned itself diplomatically with Moscow.

The US, by contrast, regards India, which used to receive support from Moscow, as a natural ally.

"If the India-US civilian nuclear deal collapses, it will not impact on the growing military ties between the two countries," William Cohen, a former US defence secretary, said at a recent arms fair in New Delhi at which American companies were well represented. "In fact I see them growing."

According to the International Institute of Strategic Studies, India's military expenditure grew by 24 per cent last year, as it has become one of the largest buyers of defence equipment.

India's defence purchases are projected to double to more than £15 billion by 2012, climbing to £40 billion by 2022.
China, too, has been on an arms-buying spree in recent years and has also been developing its own capacity to build missiles, fighter jets and submarines.

[JimmyJ]

well i guess they can afford it! we cannot match them $ for $ and therefore we should go for a strategy of "force-multipliers".

But thats what every nation is telling these days....

[BATMAN]

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But thats what every nation is telling these days....

Lets call them 'MAGICAL' days, in other words 'CHAMATKAR'.