Rs 90,048 crore allocated for defence modernisation in 2020-21: Report

An amount of Rs 90,048 crores has been allocated for capital acquisition (modernisation) of the armed forces under Defence Service Estimates in 2020-21.

This is an increase of over Rs 9,000 crores from last year's allocations.

The total amount allocated for modernisation, through procurement of new equipment and upgrading of existing equipment and systems, is 27.87 per cent of the Defence Services Estimates.

As per a written reply by the Minister of State (MoS) Defence, Shripad Naik, the modernisation projects are being progressed as per approved capital acquisition plan and in terms of the extant defence procurement procedure.

Naik was responding to Rajya Sabha MPs P Bhattacharya and Vijay Pal Singh Tomar on Monday.

The Monsoon session of the Parliament began on Monday and is slated to conclude on October 1 without any day off.

Both the Houses of Parliament will sit for four hours daily adhering to precautionary measures against COVID-19.