Budget 2024: The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented the first Union Budget of its third term on Tuesday, showing a marginal rise in spending on defence. The government increased the defense budget by 4.8 percent, pegging India’s total spending on defence at Rs 6.2 lakh crore—approximately $74 billion. This share, exactly like the interim budget in February, stands at 12.9 percent of the total budget for the financial year 2024-25.
India’s Defence Budget
With the threats from neighboring Pakistan and China on a rise, India’s requirement in terms of an effectively imbued defense budget becomes very important. The provision of Rs 6.2 lakh crore indicates India’s priority towards building up its defense. This amount, in comparison with Pakistan’s defense budget, marks the difference between the military spending of the two nations.
Pakistan’s Defence Spending
The Shahbaz Sharif-led government of Pakistan announced its national budget in June. The country’s Finance Minister Mohammad Aurangzeb announced a massive 17.5 percent hike in the country’s defense budget to $6.15 billion. Despite this hike, the latter remains more than ten times smaller than India’s. But then, transparency has also been a problem as the Pakistani government generally releases only the aggregate figures without breaking them down.
China’s Defence Budget
Its defense budget far outstrips that of India and Pakistan, in keeping with its extensive military ambitions. This March, at the 14th National People’s Congress, China announced its 2024 defense budget to increase by 7.2 percent. In Chinese currency, that would be 1.66554 trillion yuan or roughly $231.4 billion—three times India’s defense budget.
Comparative Analysis
While substantial, India’s defence budget comes off as very small against that of China, although it is appreciably larger than that of Pakistan, which underscores the strategic prioritization of India in defence spending. Although the Chinese defence budget presently runs to three times that of India, the rise rate has decidedly moderated from double-digit growth a decade ago. This might represent strategic adjustment or recalibration as China seeks a balance between military expansion with other national priorities.
Contained within India’s defense budget is a strategic effort at enhancing military preparedness against regional threats from Pakistan and China. This modest increase of 4.8 percent underlines the requirement of continuous investment in defense for national security guarding. In contrast, Pakistan’s smaller budget and non-transparency reflect its limited resources and governance challenges. As geopolitics continues to alter, the defense budget remains an integral factor in the national security strategy for ensuring preparedness and resiliency within India amidst an unpredictable regional landscape.