LOC16:20
13:20 GMT
NEW DELHI, Feb 17 (KUNA) -- India on Monday hiked its overall defense
budget to whopping USD 36 billion, a ten percent increase than the previous
year.
Indian minister for finance P Chidambaram while presenting the interim
budget in the parliament said the defence allocation has been increased by ten
percent this fiscal year (2014-2015), adding, allocations of 2.24 trillion
rupees (USD 36 bn) has been made for the defence against 2.03 trillion rupees
in the previous fiscal year.
The finance minister said India would also start a modernization plan for
the armed forces which would cost the country over 11,000 million Indian
rupees. He said the step was taken to strengthen the capacity of federal armed
forces.
The finance minister said that funds for the purpose have been provided in
the current financial year and would be utilized for providing state of the
art equipment and technology for the Central Armed Police Forces. (end)
wk.mt
KUNA 171620 Feb 14NNNN