The landmark virtual summit between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Scott Morrison in June 2020 led to ties being upgraded to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Australia’s High Commissioner to India alluded to the four D’s—Democracy, Defence, Diaspora, Dosti (friendship), with increased focus on Defence. In the India–Australia partnership, the emphasis is on maritime security cooperation, Quad 2.0, the Malabar exercises as well as cyber security and intelligence cooperation.
This article examines India’s defence expenditure over the past ten years. In so doing, it provides a public finance perspective to explain the recurring resource crunch being faced by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The article reasons that a substantial augmentation of resources for the MoD in the past has faced stiff barriers due to lack of tax buoyancy and also the political, economic and other exigencies that have led to greater public spending outside the traditional areas of expenses, including defence.
While a worrying disrepair in the political-military strand of the equation between New Delhi and Beijing prevailed through the 2010s, its economic component witnessed contrasting instances of convergence.
