Parliamentary Panel Advocates Increased Budget For Defence Research

This is in line with India’s plans to become a world leader in making military platforms: a parliamentary standing committee said on Wednesday that the annual defense budget should include more money for research and development.

An official report from the standing committee on defense says that the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has 328 projects going on right now, worth a total of ₹99,898 crore. But the strategic projects are not on the list.

Eleven of the 320 projects were in mission mode, 197 were technology demonstration (TD) projects, 34 were infrastructure and facilities projects, 19 were science and technology projects, 20 were product support projects, and three were user trial projects.

It’s “with concern” that the committee has learned that 23 of the 55 projects had not been finished by the due date.

“Although 571 projects worth ₹ 34,161.58 crore have been successfully completed and closed during the last 10 years, with respect to projects which were partially successful or unsuccessful, right such projects worth ₹ 770.31 crore were stage closed during this period,” the report said.

In Parliament on Wednesday, the committee’s report was brought up.

A group of people looked at the Defense Department’s budget and noticed that there has been less money for research and development over the last two years.

“In the year 2021-22, the projected amount was ₹ 23,460 and the allocated amount was ₹ 20,457.44 crore which was ₹ 3002.56 less than the projection,” the report stated.

In the end, the amount given was cut down to ₹18,337 crore during the revised estimate stage.

“Likewise, in the year 2022-23, the projected amount was ₹ 22,990 crore and the allocated amount stood at ₹ 21,330 crore which was ₹ 1,659 crore less than the projection,” the report said.

In order for India to become a global hub for defense manufacturing, the committee said that more money needs to be spent on defense research.

“Drawing a comparative analysis of the budgetary spending on R&D (research and development) in India with that of developed countries, the committee takes note that with the current percentage of funding, our country can only aspire to become atmanirbhar (self-reliant) and protect ourselves,” stated the report.

I want to be a global leader, but this percentage won’t be enough to get there. To reach this goal, the Committee wants R&D spending as a share of the defense budget to rise in the coming years. This way, the DRDO can reach their clear goals, the statement said.