Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his military had received around 140,000 drones in 2023 and that Moscow planned to increase this number tenfold this year.
Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister allocated the highest amount to Defence among all the ministries. The allocation for the Defence Ministry is 12.9 per cent of the total budget for fiscal year 2024-25.
Vice Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal AP Singh emphasised that the "biggest lesson that we have learned from today's geopolitics is to be self-reliant".
In the interim Union budget presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in February, a total of Rs 1.72 lakh crore was set aside to the military for capital expenditure that largely includes purchasing new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware.
The defence sector expenses are the second biggest component of the annual expenditure after the debt payments, which for the next year would be Rs 9,700 billion and constitute the single biggest expense of the debt-trapped country, which is dependent on loans from friendly nations like China.
As tensions with Taiwan escalate, China has dropped the mention of "peaceful reunification" in a government work report. The defence budget is closely watched by China's neighbours and the United States, who are concerned about Beijing's strategic intentions.
Pakistan's parliament Thursday unanimously passed the Rs 1,152 billion defence budget for the next fiscal (2019-20).
The 2019 defence budget will be 1.19 trillion yuan (about USD 177.61 billion), according to a draft budget report submitted by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the opening of the annual session of China's Parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), on Tuesday.
India's defence budget this year was increased by 6.87 per cent to Rs 3.18 lakh crore against last year's allocation of Rs 2.98 lakh crore.
Announcing substantial hike in military service pay, the finance minister said defence budget has been increased to over Rs 3 lakh crore in 2019-20.
In the Union budget, the government had allocated Rs 2.95 lakh crore to defence forces which is estimated to be around 1.58 per cent of the country's GDP. A separate allocation of Rs 1.08 lakh crore was set aside for defence pensions.
The National Defense Authorisation Bill or NDAA-2019, was passed by the House of Representatives by 351-66 votes.
The project will boost the communication capabilities of defence forces in a major way leading to enhanced national operational preparedness, the statement said.
According to the arms watchdog, the five top military spenders in 2017 were the US, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and India.
Army told a parliamentary panel that insufficient allocation to it in the defence budget was going to hit Army's modernisation at a time when Chinese military was competing to reach the level of US & Pakistan bolstering capability of its forces.
The increase of China's defence budget to 8.1 per cent this year, is three times higher than India's latest defence budget of about USD 52.5 billion.
Referring to the defence budget, Gen Rawat, quoting an internal study by the Army, said 35-37 per cent of the annual budget given to the force contributes towards nation building.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government will develop two defence industrial production corridors and bring out an industry-friendly military production policy to promote the domestic defence industry.
The defence expert opines that a decent defence allocation is as crucial as proper utilisation of funds allocated, among other factors.
The armed forces have sought an allocation of Rs 26.84 lakh crore over the next five years to ensure the necessary military modernisation and maintenance
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