Defence budget inadequate, allocation should go up:

 Panel Coming down hard on the government for meagre increase in allocation for armed forces in the last few years, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence said the outlay cannot even fulfill the basic requirements of the armed forces. Defence budget inadequate, allocation should go up: Panel The defence budget of Rs 2.81 lakh crore for next fiscal is woefully inadequate for modernisation of the armed forces and may affect military preparedness, a parliamentary panel said, strongly pitching for boosting the allocation. Coming down hard on the government for meagre increase in allocation for armed forces in the last few years, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence said the outlay cannot even fulfill the basic requirements of the armed forces. The Committee said it was in agreement with the Defence Ministry that the marginal growth of budgetary allocation is not at all sufficient and the Finance Ministry must consider increasing the funds for modernisation of the services. 

 "The Committee are distressed to note that no positive response has been received from the Ministry of Finance regarding augmentation of budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Defence," the panel said in its report, which was tabled in Lok Sabha. Although Defence Ministry has been assuring the panel that funds crunch will not suffer critical requirements of services, the Committee asserted that there is no way in which inadequate allocations do not adversely defence preparedness. "The Committee are concerned to note that the Army is operating with large scale 'vintage' equipment," it said expressing concern over lack of adequate critical weapons and surveillance systems.

 The panel headed by B C Khanduri also said the Navy has a huge requirement for capital induction as it is short of vessels, aircraft and helicopters. "Reduction in share of Naval Budget is not desirable, especially in view of the fact that India's larger chunk of trade takes place through sea routes. Besides this, the new challenges of Navy are enormous, as the hostilities in sea by neighbouring countries have increased over the years," the panel said. About Indian Air Force, it talked about pending contracts relating to Rafale fighter aircraft, Medium Lift Helicopter Upgrade,Transport Aircraft along with Associated Equipment as Avro Replacement, Additional Mi-17 V5, Manoeuvrable Expendable Aerial Targets (MEAT) and Weapons for Advance Light Helicopters etc.

Read more for Indian Stock Tips-http://bit.ly/ace_services