CDS GEN BIPIN RAWAT WILL FOCUS ON MANAGEMENT OF DEFENCE BUDGET

One of the most talked about points of this year’s budget announcement was the allocation for defence, but will it be sufficient to modernise the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force, in addition to the required regular yearly budget for the armed forces? With the creation of the new Department of Military Affairs (DMA) and India’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), a lot of defence budgeting announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be done by the CDS, General Bipin Rawat and officers belonging to the CDS and DMA for all the three armed forces of the country. To understand how they will manage the defence budget while ensuring the modernisation, salaries and pension bills of the Indian Army (the second biggest Army in the world), Navy and Air Force, this reporter spoke to multiple CDS and DMA officers who are in the process of giving the allocated amount to the defence forces the required priority.

Before going into the details of the roadmap being planned and issues being faced by the CDS and DMA, briefly, let’s first understand the defence budget for the financial year 2020-21 in numbers.

Out of the total Union Budget (Rs 3,042,230 cr) outlaid in Parliament, Rs 337,553 cr has been allocated to defence (excluding defence pension). For defence pension, an amount of Rs 133,825 cr has been provided in 202021. There is an increase of Rs 40,367.21 cr in the total defence allocations (Rs 471,378 cr) including defence pension over the financial year 2019-20. The total defence budget accounts for 15.49% of the total Central government expenditure for the year 2020-21. The allocation of Rs 471,378 cr represents a growth of 9.37% over Budget Estimates (Rs 431,010.79 cr) for the financial year 201920.

Out of Rs 337,553 cr allocated for the financial year 2020-21, Rs 218,998 cr is for revenue (Net) expenditure and Rs 118,555 cr is for capiflowers