Bottomline | Military Reforms

Pravin Sawhney

To understand Indian defence allocations for 2025-26, a look at some figures is necessary:

(a)Total allocation: Rs 6,81,210 crore (Rs 6.8 lakh crore). This is 1.9 per cent of the GDP

(b)Capital outlay (new acquisitions and moderni­sation): Rs 1,85,000 crore. 75 per cent is to be spent on procurements from domestic vendors to support Make in India. And Rs 7,147 crores is for Border Roads Organisation (BRO).

(c)Revenue outlay (salaries): Rs 3,11,732 crore which is 45 per cent of the total budget

(d)Defence pension: Rs 1,60,795 crore which is 23.60 per cent of the total budget

(e)Research and Development (DRDO): Rs 26,816 crores

(f)Agnipath scheme allocation: Rs 11,039 crores. Of this it is Rs 9,414 crores for the army.

(g)iDEX scheme allocation: Rs 450 crores

Now, my five observations to explain why Indi­an military is not preparing for the modern war where the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), India’s identified primary threat, is at the cutting edge.

First, the salaries and pensions bill where the manpower heavy 1.3 million (13 lakh) Indian Army gets the lion’s share is 68 per cent of the total al­location leaving a pittance for acquisitions and modernisation. So, the strength of the army needs to be reduced drastically. Especially when the hot war with the PLA, given the huge gap in the capa­bilities of the two militaries, will be a short, swift and intense — a dramatic repeat of the US’ 1991 ‘shock and awe’ campaign called Operation Desert Storm against the Iraqi military. In military par­lance, the PLA will win the decisive campaign at the strategic and operational levels of war with no need to join battles at t