Aimed at expediting the procurement of critical armament to enhance operational preparedness of the armed forces, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has enhanced financial powers of the vice chiefs of the three forces by five times, the increased limit is Rs 500 crore.

"The Ministry of Defence has delegated greater financial decision-making powers to vice chiefs of the three services in order to expedite the decision making process involved in revenue procurements of Armed Forces. With the new delegation, the vice chiefs will be able to exercise financial powers up to five times more than the existing powers with an enhanced ceiling of Rs 500 crore. This is likely to give another fillip to the capacity of the three Armed Forces," the MoD said in a statement on Thursday.

The ministry said the move would augment the arms and ammunition reserves of the armed forces to enhance their operational preparedness.

Earlier this year, then Army vice chief Lt General Sarath Chand had told a parliamentary standing committee on defence that the budget allocation for 2018-19 had dashed the hopes of the Army and the marginal increase was not enough to meet inflation as 68 per cent of the force's equipment was in "vintage category".

Highlighting the need for more funds he had said typically any modern force should have its equipment divided in one-third each covering all categories of vintage, current and state of the art.

He had also pointed out that the Army is falling short of funds for its 25 'Make in India' projects, that ended up being put on hold. 'Make in India' is an initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow foreign industry to set up domestic manufacturing units.

The Centre had last year given emergency powers to the three vice chiefs to buy ammunition and armaments without necessary sanctions to cut the delays. The decision was taken after internal reviews on the Uri attack of September 2016 where 18 troops were killed, indicating serious deficiencies in critical holdings.

DIRE SITUATION

• Earlier this year, then Army vice chief Lt General Sarath Chand had told a parliamentary standing committee that the budget allocation for 2018-19 for the force had dashed the hopes of the Army.   
• He had highlighted the need of proper equipment for modernisation of the force. He had also pointed out the fact that 25 ‘Make In India’ projects were put on hold owing to shortage of funds.