Page 581 - SSB Interview: The Complete Guide, Second Edition

gives an idea of how much financing should be provided for the upcoming
fiscal year. The size of a budget also reflects the country’s ability to fund
military activities.

Among the countries maintaining some of the world’s largest military
budgets, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and
the United States are frequently recognised to be great powers. According to
the list published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS),

India ranks fifth in military spending.

Defence Budget of India

Modernisation of the armed forces is based on threat perception,

technological changes and resources allocation. However, the budgetary
allocations have been inadequate to serve the needs of the armed forces.

India has had the unique distinction of being the largest importer of
defence equipment in the world for the past few years. If India is

looking at self-reliance through manufacturing in any defence sector, the

government needs to invest much more than usual to achieve it.

India has grand intentions of self-reliance in defence manufacturing

and has aligned its procurement procedures accordingly. This is not just

with the vision of arguably being a regional superpower, but also with
the intent of creating jobs and making India a manufacturing hub for all

types of defence equipment for consumption and export. The investment
thus made in defence manufacturing will benefit not only the armed

forces but the nation as a whole.

Analysis of Defence Budget 2018-19

Military expenditure in India averaged $20,080.49 million from 1956
until 2017, reaching an all-time high of $59,757.10 million in 2017 and

a record low of $2,590.70 million in 1956. In the 2018-19 Union

Budget, the amount of `2.95 lakh crore works out to around 1.58% of
India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The last time the share of

defence in the GDP was lower than this was in the 1962 Union Budget,