Manohar Parrikar says orders worth Rs2.5 trillion placed for modernization of defence sector
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar says defence budget is currently about 1.65% of GDP and he would like it to be 3% but it wouldn’t happen overnight
New Delhi: Defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday said that orders worth nearly Rs2.5 trillion have already been placed to modernize defence forces under his tenure and this figure would soon touch Rs3 trillion.
Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Parrikar said there was a backlog of defence orders worth Rs583,000 crore, some of them pending for over 10-12 years.
He said many of these are being cleared but he cannot order as per will as defence budgets are to be taken into consideration. Typically anything brought has costs spread over 5-7 years or more.
The military budget is currently about 1.65% of the gross domestic product and Parrikar said he would like it to be 3%, but he conceded it would not happen overnight.
India has become the world’s fourth largest spender on defence, following a 13.1% increase in its 2016-17 defence budget, according to US research firm IHS Inc.
India’s rise in the rankings from sixth position last year is a result of an increase in expenditure to $50.7 billion, combined with cuts to military spending by Russia and Saudi Arabia, where low oil prices have put considerable strain on their finances.
According to a report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd, India ranks among the top 10 countries in the world in terms of its military expenditure and import of defence equipment—only 35% of defence equipment is manufactured in India, mainly by public sector units.
Parrikar said his target is to bring greater synergies and understanding between the armed forces and defence ministry over the next six months in matters related to procurement and what is required by the forces.
The defence minister also said that the surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir by the Indian Army had introduced a "principle of uncertainty" in the minds of the adversary and did not rule out more such strikes.
“The surgical strikes have introduced a degree of uncertainty... obviously, uncertainty itself creates decision-making bottlenecks. You will never know them,” the defence minister said. “It was a continuous insult to be treated like this... Someone comes, hits us and we can’t do anything.”
Asked if India could carry out more surgical strikes, Parrikar said the “principle of uncertainty” should be allowed to operate. “It will be beneficial to all of us.”
On an attack in Nagrota that left seven soldiers dead on Tuesday, Parrikar said it was obvious that “some sort of lethargy” had set in over a period of time and it was “painful to see soldiers die.”
"We have to thing out of the box," Parrikar said on how to secure our military installations from more terrorist attacks. He said help of agencies like DRDO was being taken. DRDO has been asked to look into various kinds of high tech fencing.
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