Publication

This paper examines China's increased defense expenditures and the associated political and military implications for India. The author explains that while India's defense budget for the financial year 2008/09 has been hiked by only five percent in real terms to US$26.4 billion, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China has been given a 17.6 per cent increase in planned defense expenditure to US$58.79 billion. The paper states that as one of the consequences of China's increased spending, India also needs to invest more in improving the decrepit logistics infrastructure along the border with Tibet, in hi-tech intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems for early warning and in generating additional land- and air-based firepower.