Indian budget falls short of expectations
India declared a defence budget of $40.6 billion for 2017/18, a 6% increase over last year’s spending of $38.2 billion. The budget did not meet the expectations of experts and senior military officers hoping that spending would rise by at least 15% to cater to significant modernisation programmes in the pipeline.
Delivering his budget speech in parliament on 1 February, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the allocation included capital expenditure of $12.8 billion for upgrading the capabilities of the country’s armed forces. Capital expenditure is 10% higher than last year.
One expert commented, ‘The allocation comes as a disappointment. Payments
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