India steps up defence spending

India increased annual defence spending by about 11.6 percent on Monday, but will still spend less than half the official military expenditure of China, its biggest long-term security challenge. The hefty increase suggests the Indian government plans to move ahead with some of a slew of planned purchases of high-tech military equipment including a $10.5 billion deal to buy fighter aircraft, analysts said.
India is also shopping for transport aircraft, surveillance helicopters and submarines to beef up defences in the air as well as in the Indian Ocean to counter China's growing military might. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, presenting the 2011-2012 budget to parliament, set the military budget at just over 1.64 trillion rupees ($36.28 billion), up from last year's 1.47 trillion rupees.