India's defence spending is forecast by Janes Defence Budgets to rise to more than USD91 billion by 2030. (Janes Defence Budgets)
India has announced a 2024–25 defence budget of INR6.22 trillion (USD74.3 billion). The expenditure represents a 4.8% increase compared with the original defence budget for 2023–24. However, compared with the revised defence budget for that year the new allocation is a slight decline.
The 2024–25 defence budget was announced on 23 July as part of the government's ‘regular' budget for this fiscal year. An ‘interim' defence budget was announced in February before the Indian general election, which took place in April and May.
Budgetary documents show that the 2024–25 regular defence budget is just INR4 billion higher – or 0.06% – than the earlier interim expenditure. The additional funding will support an initiative launched in March 2024 – known as the Acing Development of Innovative Technologies with iDEX (ADITI) scheme – to support private-sector efforts to develop military technologies.
The 2024–25 defence budget contains INR1.72 trillion (or 28% of the total) for capital acquisitions, nearly INR921 billion (15%) for spending on sustenance and operational preparedness, and INR1.9 trillion (31%) for pay and allowances, the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) said. Military pensions receive INR1.41 trillion (23%), with the remainder allocated to MoD agencies.
The MoD said the 2024–25 appropriation for capital acquisitions is a 9.4% increase over the revised allocation in 2023–24. “The allocation is aimed to fill the critical capability gaps through big-ticket acquisitions in current and subsequent [years],” the MoD added.
However, unlike previous years, budgetary documents for 2024–25 do not provide a breakdown of capital outlay for the army, navy, and air force.
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