Defense Budget 2025: It is believed that the foreign policy of any country is as strong as its defense system. A country which has strong military and security capabilities can present its interests on the international stage without any pressure. This is the reason why today almost all the big countries of the world are spending heavily on their defense budget.

America has proposed to increase its defense budget to $ 1.5 trillion for the year 2027, which is about 50 percent more than earlier estimates. At the same time, India’s neighbor China is also continuously increasing its military expenditure. In the financial year 2025-26, China spent about $ 245 billion on defense budget.

India’s defense expenditure: position against GDP

If we look at the trend of India’s defense expenditure in the last 15 years, there is a continuous decline in its ratio to GDP. Defense expenditure in 2010-11 was 2.71% of GDP.

In 2015-16 it was 2.41%

2.88% in 2020-21

2.21% in 2022-23

1.97% in 2023-24

1.89% in 2024-25

It will reduce to around 1.90% in 2025-26. These figures clearly indicate that despite increasing global tensions, India’s defense expenditure is becoming limited in proportion to GDP.

financial year	What share of GDP is spent on the budget in percentage?
2015-16	2.41
2020-21	2.88
2022-23	2.21
2023-24	1.97
2024-25	1.89

Rising global tensions and India’s strategy

Today the global situation is extremely unstable. The wars in Iran, Venezuela, Ukraine and the ongoing tension in the Middle East have deepened the security challenges. In such a situation, the question arises that what strategy should India adopt regarding defense expenditure in Budget 2026? Manish Kumar Gupta, expert in economic matters It is said that now investment in defense sector is not limited to just GDP, employment or trade. This has directly become a measure of India’s strategic power and global influence.

When India exports defense equipment, it not only sells arms, but also establishes itself among the powerful countries of the world. The issue of a strong defense exporting country is heard more seriously in international forums.

Defense sector and economic development

According to Manish Gupta, the confidence expressed by IMF and World Bank regarding India’s growth rate is also largely related to the defense sector. Defense is a high-value manufacturing sector, which integrates technology, MSME and skill development. This reduces imports, increases exports and has a positive impact on the current account balance. At present, the contribution of defense sector in GDP is about 2 percent, which can be taken to 2.5 percent with right policies.

Necessary reforms and challenges

However, some tough decisions are necessary for this.

Transparency in defense procurement process

Control on the problem of ‘lobbying’ and repeated cancellations in the tender system

Share of indigenous products up to 75 percent in army procurement

Cheap loans to MSMEs and guarantee of timely payment

Without these reforms, the idea of ​​a self-reliant defense industry will remain incomplete.

The nature of war has changed

Manish Gupta says that today’s fight is more about data, artificial intelligence and cyber technology than cannon balls. Therefore, special emphasis should be given to AI, cyber security and cutting-edge technology in Budget 2026.

Although defense exports have increased manifold and the target is to reach Rs 50 thousand crore, there is still a huge gap between announcements and ground implementation.

Focus on Air Force and basic industry necessary

There itself Defense expert and retired wing commander Prafulla Bakshi Believes that India will have to pay maximum attention to the Air Force, because the role of Air Force is most important in deciding the beginning and direction of modern war. According to him, it is very important to increase investment on research and development.

Prafulla Bakshi also says that India’s biggest weakness is its basic industrial capacity. Unless the national industry is strong, the defense industry also cannot be strong.

Today India is not able to make many important things like metal-grade engines itself. If we depend on other countries for weapons during war, we will not be able to fight for a long time. Therefore, it is essential to strengthen indigenous industry and manufacturing for long-term security.

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Operation Sindoor: Operation Sindoor of India has caused heavy damage to Pakistan. Through this operation, India has also granted its strength to Pakistan. Meanwhile, an important news has come out. The central government can increase the defense budget. This will make the army stronger.

After shaking Pakistan from Operation Sindoor, the central government can increase Rs 50,000 crore in the defense budget. The Ministry of Defense has proposed to increase funds to the government, which can be approved in the winter session during the November-December of Parliament. A report quoted government sources as saying that additional funds are expected to be allocated through the supplementary budget at the end of this year, so that the total defense expenditure will probably cross Rs 7 lakh crore for the first time.

On 1 February, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had already fixed a record of Rs 6.81 lakh crore for defense in the Union Budget for 2025-26. This figure shows a significant increase of 9.2 percent from Rs 6.22 lakh crore in the previous year. If additional allocation is approved, it will further underline the government’s strategic priority towards military modernization and national security.

Additional budget will be used in the purchase of weapons

Sources said that additional budget can be raised research and development, procurement of advanced weapons, increasing ammunition store. India can also spend on new fighter aircraft and missiles. This proposal is likely to be introduced for the approval of Parliament during the winter session. Since the beginning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s term in 2014, there has been a rapid increase in defense spending. In 2014-15, Rs 2.29 lakh crore was allocated to the Ministry of Defense. The current budget not only reduces that figure, but also shows the biggest allocation in all ministries, which is 13 percent of the national budget.

‘Operation Sindoor’ has also attracted attention to integrating indigenous defense systems of the Indian Army with advanced techniques. In particular, this operation demonstrated the strength of India’s air defense system, including the indigenous Akash missile system, which is often compared to Israeli’s Iron Dome.

India is going to get a new counter-drain system

In an developments related to this, India also tested a new anti-drone weapon called Bhargavastra. It is designed as a low-cost counter-drain system operating in ‘hard kiln’ mode, it uses micro-rocke to neutralize air threats. The system was successfully tested at the SeRard Firing Range in Gopalpur, Odisha earlier this week.

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The Indian Army has given a befitting reply to Pakistan’s attacks. Not only the Pakistani air defense system was wasted HQ-9, but India’s Air Defense System S-400 also blown away all the drones of the Pakistani army. Pakistani experts of S-400 have also become adorned, but they regret that the Pak government will not be able to buy this. He himself has told the status of Pakistan how the Shahbaz Sharif government reaches the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be begging, so from where will S-400 buy.

Pak expert Qamar Cheema said that India decided to pull Pakistan about Pakistan. Pakistan has to be blown away, they are directly saying. He said that now we have to see how India takes things with us or they have to fight.

Pak expert Qamar Cheema suggested to the Pak government, ‘If you want to fight, then take brother S-400. It is a simple matter. You also need these batteries. Take S-400 not S-500, but the question is where we buy from. We do not have $ 5-6 billion or 10 billion, our total defense budget is $ 11 billion, so where should we take.

Qamar Cheema said where Pakistan has a defense budget of $ 11 billion and where is India’s $ 80 billion defense budget, land-sky difference, then their foreign exchange reserves of $ 650 billion are $ 650 billion. He said that we have some reserve, then we run away to the IMF. We do not have that much money, so then the defense has to be done in other ways. We do not have those resources that India have.

Qamar Cheema said that in 2016, India did not have confidence that he would enter Pakistan and return, but in 2019, two killed and in 2025 attacked eight-nine cities. He said that India says that we do not care about the nuclear threats of Pakistan. We should understand these things. What Indians are doing with us, it seems an important thing that it is not as easy as we understand.

In the year 2018, India had made a deal of $ 5.43 billion i.e. Rs 35,000 crore from Russia to buy five S-400 air defense systems. First of all, this defense system was deployed in Punjab in view of the air threats from Pakistan and China. Three units of this have been deployed, while the remaining two can be deployed by 2026.

The S-400 is capable of attacking with four types of missiles and it can prevent enemy aircraft, drones, cruise missiles and ballistic projections in the air itself. Its advanced radar system can track more than 100 targets in one go. There are reports that India has approached Russia to buy more S-400 and soon it can get more defense system.

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