Opposition criticize FM for lower defense allocation

New Delhi Feb 2: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday has presented the budget.The FM has also announced allocations for Defense. The Finance Minister has hailed the contributions of Indian defense.

FM has said that "that two defense industrial corridors will be set up in the country". Jaitley has also said that "The government would come out with an industry-friendly defense production policy."

FM had also added that "A number of initiatives have been taken to develop and nurture the intrinsic defense production capability to make the nation self-reliant for meeting our defense needs."

Jaitley has said that "the defense budget of this fiscal year at 2,95,511 crore rupees (46.1 billion U.S. dollars, increasing 7.81 percent from last year's 2,74,114 crore rupees (42.8 billion U.S. dollars)".

However, the opposition has criticized that the allocation is just about 1.58% of the projected GDP for 2018-19, the lowest such figure since the 1962 war with China.