When Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents her seventh budget today, all eyes will be on what she announces for the defence sector. The budget comes just days after a top air force officer said aatmaribharta cannot be at the cost of the nation's defence, suggesting that the forces will need cutting-edge weapons to match the capabilities that India's adversaries have. It was not clear whether he was hinting at imports or urging the local manufacturers to up their games. This comment comes at a time when India is engaged in a border row with China in eastern Ladakh.
India has been focusing on 'self-reliance', meaning more weapons will be developed indigenously, which will cut import costs and will ensure a disruption-free supply of weapons in difficult times when the country can't solely rely on foreign supply.
Vice Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal AP Singh recently said Aatmaribharta is what India is riding on. "But this aatmaribharta cannot be at the cost of the nation's defence. Nation's defence comes first and foremost and if Indian Air Force or Indian forces have to ride on this aatmaribharta, it is only possible if everyone - from DRDO to DPSU, to the private industry holds the hand and takes us to that path and don't let us deviate from that path," he said.
"Because when it comes to national defence, there will be compulsions to deviate from their path in case we do not get the things that we need or the kind of system and weaponry that is required to survive in today's world. So, my humble request to each one of us here is that let's put a system in place where we are helping each other out in achieving the overall goal, which is our goal. It is not anybody else's. If we have to defend the nation, it is everybody's job. It is not just the job of a person in uniform," he added.
Security analyst Sushant Sareen concurred with him, saying the air marshal was on point. "While it is true that there can be no national defence without aatamnirbharta, at the same time, don't expect armed forces to fight against adversaries armed with the latest weapons while our own soldiery is equipped with outdated weapons, unless we are ready to pay in soldiers lives to make up for the tech gap."
Sareen said that the Air Force officer was also right that "beyond the slogan is really hard work and systems required that unleash innovation and manufacturing capabilities which are still at a nascent stage".
If India turns to foreign countries for cutting-edge weapons, its import bill will soar. The other issues the defece sector is facing are rising salary and pension costs. Experts believe that the Centre's Agnipath scheme is aimed at bringing down the pension cost, but a section of former army veterans and society want some tweaking in the scheme to make it more attractive. If the government goes for longer service years from 4 to say 7 or 10, as some veterans have suggested, it will increase the costs.
In November 2020, India Today reported that the government spent more on paying pensions than on purchasing military hardware. The 2020 defence budget allocated Rs 1.3 lakh crore to defence pensions and Rs 1.1 lakh crore to buying military hardware like fighter jets, tanks and warships.
A research paper published by Manohar Parrikar Defence Institute in February 2020 said the share of the defence pension had increased the most, and together with P&A (Pay and Allowances) accounted for 61 per cent of the Defence Ministry's total budget in 2020-21, up from 49 per cent in 2011-12.
More significantly, the paper stated, nearly the entire increase in the pension's share had come at the cost of capital procurement, which together with stores had dwindled by 11 percentage points from 36 per cent in 2011-12 to 25 per cent in 2020-21. In the interim budget, the defence allocation was increased to Rs 6.21 lakh crore for 2024-25 in a modest hike of 4.72 per cent from last year's allocation of Rs 5.25 lakh crore. In the interim budget, Sitharaman also announced plans to roll out an ambitious scheme for "deep-tech" technologies in the military domain.
A total of Rs 1.72 lakh crore was set aside for the military for capital expenditure that largely includes purchasing new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware.