March 2, 2008: India is increasing its
defense budget about ten percent next year, to over $26 billion. Last year, the
budget went up 7.8 percent. But there are still problems with buying new
weapons. The domestic arms manufacturers are inefficient, and often delay
delivery of new items for years. Like defense contractors everywhere, the
Indian ones tend to promise more than they can deliver. This puts pressure on
the military to buy foreign gear instead. But that sort of thing often leads to
corrupt practices (like demanding bribes from foreign suppliers). Currently, 38
Indian officials and officers are being prosecuted for such corruption. This
has made honest procurement officials overly cautious, further slowing down the
acquisition process.
The military has good personnel, but is
way behind in terms of modern equipment. Low pay has also caused a severe
officer shortage. Excellent NCOs can only do so much to cover these shortages.
