NEW DELHI, INDIA: Indian government on Saturday cleared long-delayed projects worth $13.1 billion to modernise the nation's ageing Soviet-era military hardware and boost its domestic defense industry, a report said.
The move underscores the desire of the government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to update the country's military as it looks to defend itself, especially after recent border clashes with Pakistan and a tense stand-off with the Chinese troops.
The Defence Acquisition Council on Saturday approved defense procurement proposals worth 800 billion rupees ($13.1 billion), many of which were longstanding, at a meeting chaired by Defense Minister Arun Jaitley, the Press Trust of India reports.
India, the second most populous nation in the world, is in the midst of a $100-billion defense upgrade program. It cleared proposals worth nearly $3.5 billion in June.
Defense ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.
India is the world's largest arms importer with the United States, recently overtaking Russia as its biggest arms supplier.
But slow procurement over decades and the collapse of a string of defense deals during the previous centre-left Congress party government's rule has left the military short of key equipment.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been pushing for greater indigenisation of the military industry as India imports around 70 percent of its defense hardware.
In August, Modi urged India to build up its military might to the point that no other country "dare cast an evil eye" on the South Asian nation.
He also said that India had to stop relying heavily on defense imports and focus instead on local research, design and manufacture.
In line with that, among the major proposals to receive approval were a 500-billion-rupee tender to indigenously build six submarines for the navy and purchase 8,356 Israeli guided missiles as well as 12 Dornier aircraft, PTI said citing defense ministry officials.
Modi's new government has raised the foreign investment cap on India's defense industries to speed up modernisation of the military.
India has fought three wars with nuclear-armed rival Pakistan, two of them over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
The country has also been seeking to shore up its defense capabilities to counter a military build-up by an increasingly assertive China.
COMMENTS (25)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@Sid:
1) I didnt rant or get riled up even once but I did put the self-praising people in delusions back to their real state. 2) Last time that COAS pointed the flaws out, Internet Indians jumped at his throat and didn't want to accept their short comings. In reality, Internet Indians dont learn anything so stop kidding yourself. 3) As I have pointed out a number of times and even you hinted it, yes we have nothing to fear really. Poorly trained staff and military usually come up with blunders every other month. Not losing any sleep here. 4) Self-praising profound in these people or buying of fool proof weapons dont grant courage as well. You had the overpraised MKIs by 26/11 but didn't have the courage to attack Pakistan. And please, dont start reading the "restraint" mantra because we all know that wasnt the real reason. You are not Israel and we are not Palestine. You would do well to remember that.
@Azi: Well if we are so incompetent, then you guys have nothing to fear, why are you then getting so riled up ? In fact I am happy you constantly pointing our flaws and gaps in our security, gives us some chance to fix it. And this budget is exactly doing that.....filling the gaps. So what ever your intentions are, your comments are welcomed and its helping us. But please tell me, how is this ranting helping you ?
@kris: Have you realized India’s defence budget alone is more than the ENTIRE budget of Pakistan?
But then Pakistan's defence budget is almost equal to the entire budget of Pakistan
Despite all the wars in the world it seems that young people in both countries are becoming jingoist.The huge amounts of money spent in acquiring arms should be spent on development .As the saying goes that people who lose in the wars are widows and children.
To me, ALL this article says is that India is going nuts over better military shopping and/ or production. Weapons that can basically make the military fool proof. And really, it causes no loss of sleep over at Pakistani side. Media is just doing its job, over sensationalizing news which is not even worth 2 cents.
After one of India's COAS level personality retired, he said in an event of war India's ammunition wont last more than a week and also most of it is filled up with "duds"
And you know what? Yes they do need fool proof/ fire- forget gadgets because of the incompetence profound in the military. Do I need to remind our relentless Indian ego posters of the submarine "accident" incident? Or the recent over praised Su-30 MKI crash that caused grounding of entire fleet?
Or maybe the prime example of incompetence is the blunder of china's drone spotting in the night sky for 6 (SIX) MONTHS straight when those really were planets (Jupiter and Mars). Boy am I glad they didnt blow those planets out of the solar system...
Fact remains that this money is better spent on tackling poverty than flexing muscles because when the time comes, in India's words, restraint which is more like lack of courage to attack Pakistan is what we see.
OMG! So many self righteous citizen have such a terrible self Image issue? Unbelievable! No wonder, same syndrome brought them here across, border to peak-into next-door kitchen... What's cooking! Please have mercy on this Aziz fella, will you all? It don't suite Big scientists & Famous politicians to be threatened by a question or claim, does it?
@Azi: For the past few decades, you were crazy and we were reasonable. So now we are trying a new strategy where we too will get crazy. And if anything happens, it's God's wish
@Azi sunte ho .... someone is evidently jealous of India's growing military might.
Have you realized India's defence budget alone is more than the ENTIRE budget of Pakistan?
@Azi:
You are right, but that's how you can progress, you first learn to assemble, then maintain it, service it, then start producing parts as local manufacturing industry matures. Its wishful thinking for most developing countries to think they can right-away start manufacturing every single part ingenuously.
China has 100% record of attacking neighbors it perceives as week, so India will always do what it takes to maintain a strong military.
@Azi:
Please give your media outlets this advice. It seems your media has nothing better to do but report news on India. The number of articles on Modi in the last 6 months gives a clear indication of where your complexes point to. But this is not surprising for a country which has no identity, except for being "not India". No wonder your country is still living in 1947 and debating TNT. Get out of this complex and get a life...
@Azi...something burning...kuch jal raha hai...!!!
The purchase of spike missile also comes with technology transfer after buying initially from israel
@Azi: grapes are sour my friend
@Azi: Do you have any article to share to substantiate your claim about Indian made helicopters? Or you just have your jealousy to express ?
Oh, so that what all recent LOC firing and killing of innocent civilians was all about? To get Clearance!
@Azi: obsession with India? actually you do. its very clear in your comment. BTW imported helicoptor is this one bt pakistan- pakistani indigenous helicopter as a reply to Indian Dhruv
@Sudheer: its spike guided missile
@Sudheer:
All the fancy fire and forget mumbo jumbo aside, these weapons will only be used once against China or Pakistan and that would be the last day for all three. I honestly dont understand why this news is even on ET instead of some hindu mumbo jumbo times. We really are not and shouldn't be obsessed with what India spends on. Let them create whatever "indigenous" items they want to build. Last time they made of of those was a helicopter with parts from all over the world assembled in India, yeah "Indigenous".
We are creating indigenous manufacturing sector in defence. Another sector created for employment apart from space,medicine,business,IT,education, r&dwithout red tape hassle for private sector and entrepreneurs. Selling these would generate money for our economy just like our space industry billion dollar returns. We are getting back on track on growth rate from 4.5 to 7.8 % . PM rocks!
Instead of importing, build ingenuously and provide jobs to thousands. Excellent Modi sir. You are a visionary.
It $13.1 billion is biggest deal clearance in this month DAC meet.This is in addition to earlier cleared $3.5 billion dollar deal in the month of August DAC meet.I think the next $20 billion deal of MMRCA Rafale will be cleared in next DAC meet may be likely in next 3 month.India and PM Modi rocks.
I as an embedded engineer excited by knowing that private company can enter into defence manufacturing .will surely move to that companies.Its a lot of job creator for us.great move
Awesome.