By VIVEK RAGHUVANSHI
NEW DELHI — The small increase recently announced in India’s defense budget has raised questions about the military’s combat readiness in the near future and underscores the need to push weapon buys through an overcautious bureaucracy.
“Combat capability needs to be redefined. In terms of pure holdings of equipment, we may appear to be far better off than Pakistan, but when we compare the decision-making process and the heavy bureaucratic interference, Pakistan will score better and hence an overall capability matrix may indicate a par. In terms of China, we are definitely far behind,” said K.V. Kuber, a retired Indian Army colonel and the CEO of a consulting firm based here.
Indian defense spending will increase 5.2 percent in 2013-2014, totaling $38 billion, compared with a jump of nearly 11 percent by China, which will spend $115.7 billion.
While no officer would openly say India’s combat worthiness is inferior to either China’s or Pakistan’s, in private they admitted the slow pace of spending on new weapons in the past five years has eroded capabilities.
A senior Army officer also said the blacklisting of several foreign companies in recent years has proved counterproductive and has favored “our enemies.”
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