Priority: adequately equipped Army
India’s Defence Budget has increased year on year for replacement of ageing and obsolete defence equipment, Minister of State for Defence Jayadev Galla said in a written reply to Lok Sabha on 26 June 2019.
The expenditure is part of modernisation of Armed Forces which is a continuous process based on threat perception, operational challenges, technological changes and available resources.
The process is based on a 15-year Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP), five-year Service Capital Acquisition Plan (SCAP) and Annual Acquisition Plan (AAP).
The Government attaches high priority to ensuring that the Armed Forces are adequately equipped and operationally prepared to deal the entire spectrum of security challenges facing the country, he said.
In this context, there is a constant endeavour to modernize the Armed Forces through acquisition of contemporary systems, development of new technologies and upgrading of conventional equipment.
Allocated budget is optimally utilised to avoid gap between the need and the availability of funds. There has been consistent increase in total Capital Budget of Ministry of Defence.
The details of Capital Budget (BE) for the last three years and current year are: 2016-17 Rs.90,209.63 crore, 2017-18 Rs.91,579.70 crore, 2018-19 Rs.99,563.86 crore and 2019-20 (interim) Rs.108,248.80 crore. fiinews.com
