India's Defense Budget Anomaly

Prime Minister Narendra Modi aspires to an India that is a developed country by 2047 and one of the three largest economies in the world.

Having said that, if India were to emerge as a super power, it cannot be financially alone but has to be backed by a super army, navy and air force.

In fact, one of the hot topics in recent times given the statements by various BJP leaders is that sooner or later, India will commence an operation to integrate PoK with India. But for that to happen, the army has to be in a state of readiness and all weaponry, systems and technologies modernized for any kind of an eventuality.

From 1963 to 2010, the defense budget under successive governments was three percent and above as a percentage of the GDP. Under the BJP government, for the last 10 years, the defence budget has been below three percent of the GDP.

If India is to achieve its developmental and military goals which are inter-connected, it has to have a bigger defence budget.

Given the BJP’s proactive approach to international issues, it is surprising that the Party’s manifesto has not made any special mention of increasing the budget for defence expenditure.