India’s military budget increases less than expected as it struggles with China stand-off

Overall, military spending increased to 3.47 trillion rupees (US$47.4 billion), up from 3.43 trillion rupees in the previous financial year, budget documents indicate. India’s expenditure is about a quarter of China’s – in May 2020, Beijing announced a yearly defence budget US$178.6 billion, according to data from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

There had been an expectation that India’s defence budget would receive a “robust increase” in response to the deadly clashes with Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh, said Laxman Behera, associate professor at the Special Centre for National Security Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

“[It would have] signalled that India’s government means business when it comes to the nation’s sovereignty and security,” Behera said. “It looks like the defence minister will have to live with a shortfall for years to come.”

Both India and China have moved thousands of soldiers, tanks, artillery to the disputed border after clashes in the Galwan valley in Ladakh last June that left at least 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops dead. The clashes along their 3,488km boundary, known as the Line of Actual Control, come as China increasingly asserts its presence in the region and as India grapples with the world’s second-worst coronavirus epidemic and an economy in crisis.