By: Vivek Raghuvanshi
NEW DELHI — India needs $233 billion to meet its weapons and equipment requirements in the next 11 years, according to the Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP) for 2012-2027, an Indian Ministry of Defense (MoD) source has revealed. However, there's division over whether India will be able to meet the funding need.
The list of the weapons and equipment needed for India's armed forces translates to a cost of $233 billion. According to the MoD source, the money will come from the country's procurement budget, Capital Head.
To meet the funding target, India will need to increase defense spending at an annual rate of more than 10 percent.
The funding allocation in the Capital Head for 2016-2017 is $37.94 billion, which works out to an increase of 2.3 percent in rupee terms against last year's funding allocation. However, in US dollar terms, it was a 10 percent drop compared to last year's allocation of $42.1 billion because of the depreciating Indian rupee against the dollar.
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