India increases defence budget by 10%

India has announced a 2022–23 defence budget of INR5.25 trillion (USD70.2 billion), an increase of 10% over the allocation in 2021–22.

The allocation is equal to about 13% of the government's total expenditure for the year, said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on 1 February.

It added that the expenditure reflects the government's emphasis on the “modernisation and infrastructure development” of the Indian Armed Forces.

The defence budget includes a revenue allocation of INR3.64 trillion (or 69%) for operations, salaries, and pensions. The latter will receive 33% of the allocation (or INR1.19 trillion), an increase of 2.4%.

The budget also includes INR1.60 trillion (or 30%) for capital outlay. Of this, the Indian defence services will receive INR1.52 trillion, a year-on-year increase of nearly 13%.

The Indian Army capital outlay in 2022–23 is INR320 billion, a decline of 12%. The Indian Navy will receive INR475.9 billion, an increase of 43%, while the Indian Air Force has been allocated INR555.8 billion, an increase of 4%.

The capital outlay budget also includes INR1.24 trillion for defence procurement across the three services. Of this, the MoD said funding ring-fenced for domestic programmes is INR845.9 billion or 68% of the procurement budget. The MoD said this share increased by four percentage points compared with 2021–22.

Other capital spending programmes include funding for transport, border, and coastal security infrastructure. The MoD also said that 25% of the defence research and development budget will be allocated towards supporting local entities.

India's defence budget in 2021–22 was INR4.78 trillion, which represented a nominal 1.45% increase over the INR4.71 trillion defence budget in 2020–21.