“Economic development and military modernisation must go hand-in-hand,” Bipin Rawat said. (source: Express photo by Amit Mehra/File)
India’s economic development must go hand-in-hand with modernisation of the armed forces, Army chief Gen. Bipin Rawat said on Thursday.
“Economic rise takes place if the country is secure,” he said, defending the quantum of budget allocation to the armed forces, and stressed that there is a link between flow of foreign investment into India and the situation at the country’s borders as well as the internal security scenario.
To invite investment, “we have to build and develop confidence among the investors that the nation’s borders are secure and the internal security situations are under control for which there is a requirement for budget for the defence forces,” he said at a seminar here.
“Economic development and military modernisation must go hand-in-hand,” he asserted
The Army chief also talked about those who question the budgetary allocation to the armed forces.
Referring to the defence budget, Gen Rawat, quoting an internal study by the Army, said 35-37 per cent of the annual budget given to the force contributes towards nation building.
“If you are developing roads and infrastructure in remote areas of the country, they benefit the local population. The armed forces in the remotest locations are providing facilities of education and health care to people where government has not yet been able to reach out,” he said.
Giving examples of expenditure, the Army chief also spoke of the money spent on sending Indian troops for various UN missions.
He said though the Army spends money on the troops, the reimbursement from the UN does not come to the Army and the amount goes to the Consolidated Fund of India.
According to officials, a whopping Rs four lakh crore worth of military procurement involving 136 proposals were cleared by the government in the last three years as part of efforts to modernise the armed forces.
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Indian SinghMar 1, 2018 at 4:56 pmECONOMIC POWER has replaced MILITARY POWER long back. That is why USA and UK are better friends of JAPAN and GERMANY than India even though India fought alongside USA and UK against Japan and Germany. .......... All the BILLIONS of worth of ARMS- PLANES, TANKS, MISSILES etc purchased after 1971 WAR are being DUMPED with out ever having been used in any CONFLICT to by MORE for BILLIONS which will be DUMPED again by 2040 to more for BILLIONS while more than 40 CRORE INDIANS suffer due to POOR HEALTH CARE and MALNUTRITION. ............ Only RIFLES and some GUNS have been used by armed forces to fight TERRORIST AND JIHADIS after 1971 Indo-Pak warReply- Mar 1, 2018 at 5:14 pmThe west are shrewd people. The conflict in other parts of the world is their bread and butter. Army controlled green monkeys called pakistan's obsession with kashmir even if their population dies and no economic growth tells us how Democracy is important. Now Green Monkey are sold to china..Reply
- Mar 1, 2018 at 4:49 pmNo one will object to the quantum of budget allocation to the armed forces. But people are concerned with the regular reports that army is short of essential weaponry, arms and ammunition, safety gears for the soldiers and the corruption during procurement of highly sophisticated armory. .Reply
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