India records $30bn worth defence purchases over last four years
24 Nov 2011
India has made defence purchases worth a whopping Rs144,911.8 crore ($28.45 billion approx.) during a four year period starting fiscal 2007-08 and ending fiscal 2010-11.
According to defence minister AK Antony, total purchases, which stood at Rs28,159.16 crore ($5.52bn) in 2007-08, rose to Rs46,887.56 crore ($9.20bn) in 2010-11, a rise of nearly 80% in four years.
Antony stated in a reply to the Lok Sabha, the lower House of the Indian Parliament, that procurement from indigenous companies exceeded that of direct procurement from international companies.
Adding up the year-wise figures provided by the minister, indigenous procurement stood at Rs95,705.85 ($18.78bn) while procurement from foreign sources amounted to Rs42,205.95 crore ($8.28bn) during the four year period.
The year 2010-11 also marked a reversal in the trend of allocations vs spending. Whilst in earlier years, defence procurement spending was below the allocated amount, in this year the ministry of defence overspent the budgetary allocation by Rs486.5 crore.