NEW DELHI, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- India's defence budget was increased to 5.25 trillion Indian Rupees (about 70 billion U.S. dollars) on Tuesday, 9.8 percent higher than that of last year.
Delivering the Union Budget speech in parliament, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that defence's research and development (R&D) would be opened up for industry, start-ups and academia with 25 percent of the Research and Development budget earmarked for them.
The minister said, "Our government is committed to reducing imports and promoting self-reliance in equipment for the armed forces. Sixty-eight percent of the capital procurement budget will be earmarked for the domestic industry this year, up from 58 percent last year."
"The Union Budget for Financial Year 2022-23 has given further impetus to modernisation of Defence Services and Defence Security Infrastructure development," the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
According to the ministry, the total defence budget was 13.31 percent of the total budget for the whole country.
The funds for defence budget include pensions (119,000 crore Indian Rupees) for the retired defence personnel and "the total Defence Budget represents an enhancement of 46,970 crore Indian Rupees (9.82 percent) over Budget Estimates 2021-22," said the statement. ■
