Defence Spending Hiked Amid Push for Modernisation

India on Saturday set aside more than ₹6.81 lakh crore for defence spending in the Union Budget for 2025-26, including ₹1.8 lakh crore for the modernisation of the military at a time when its shopping list encompasses fighter jets, helicopters, warships, submarines, tanks, artillery guns, drones, and rockets and missiles.

- Rahul Singh

NEW DELHI:

A significant portion of the modernisation outlay will be spent on buying weapons, systems and equipment from domestic suppliers to achieve the self-reliance goal, a top priority for the government.

The allocation is 9.5% higher than what it was in the budget estimates (₹6.23 lakh crore) for the financial year 2024-25, and around 6% more than last year's revised estimates (₹6.41 lakh crore), the budget documents show. To be sure, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman did not touch upon the defence allocation in her budget speech.