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India Tops in Illiteracy and Defense Spending

In your simplistic mind, you don't see the connection between defense and domestic spending.

Not only is there an impact of India's defense spending on its own people in terms of reduction of rampant poverty, disease and illiteracy, it also impacts decisions by your neighbors, thereby affecting the spending priorities of the entire region.

As Col Nair puts it, "The "guns versus butter" argument is valid especially when the guns (and missiles) are not buying the security the country needs against asymmetrical threats from within and without."
Again you are moving into a wild goose chase. These is no co-relation between Expenditure on Education and defence. Both have their sphere of importance and are dealt with accordingly. And as far as Colonel s concerned, his comments are because of his vested interests and his commentary can not be considered neutral.

Additionally as per data available, India's expenses on education are in line with international norms, and proposal to increase them is already in place. If you have any clue on every transaction (sales / service tax) there is an additional educational cess that we are paying. If there is a need to pump in more money into education sector, India has many ways to get the amount, and even when required, Defence will be the last place to extract money from.

India has to be aware of developments in a not so peaceful neighborhood. For a country to have faced 4 wars in last 60 years and increasingly hostile neighbours, reduction in defence expenses would hardly be on the highest priority.

Col Nair is just looking for more money of which he can siphon off a large proportion.

Kindly do not expect India to be the only peace dove in the nation to reduce defence spending so that Pakistan (as per your assesment) can reduce its. We see it vice versa, a not so fast developing country with a collapsing economy (speculated) is matching a fast developing economy in defence spending, this seems like a North Korea like situation, which enables the neighbours to be on the vigil.
 
Looking at India's 2010 budget, more than half of it goes for defense, internal security, paramilitary, intelligence and debt servicing, leaving less than half for everything else, including healthcare, education, nutrition, infrastructure development, etc etc.
How did you get hold of 2010 budget of India, from where????

Stop spewing crap.

So the governments need to do both: seriously evaluate what is being spent where and why? And ensure closer oversight for best results. As Col Nair puts it in his post:

"Defense economics has not been a subject for serious study or debate in Indian academic or military circles. Little or no literature is available with the exception of a few books in the area of defense accounts. Economists and activists have long argued that defense related expenditure needs to be curtailed. Opinion is clearly divided between the developmental lobby and strategic thinkers who wield influence with the political leadership. This paper will attempt to make a realistic assessment of current levels of defense spending by evaluating the efficacy and intensity of military expenditure. Indeed, some arguments have been made before but bear repetition in the current scenario. Parliament passes the defense budget with little or no discussion. The media is largely ignorant or chooses to ignore the issue of defense spending. The view across the political spectrum and indeed the strategic community is that any exercise to limit defense spending amounts to compromising national security and is therefore not a viable consideration. Whilst it is true that development cannot take place in an insecure environment, defense expenditure (DE) in a developing country directly impacts the outlay on social spending. The "guns versus butter" argument is valid especially when the guns (and missiles) are not buying the security the country needs against asymmetrical threats from within and without."
3 bolded parts
a)which Paper?
b) Media is if anything hyper-active
3) There are not only threats from within but threats from outside.
 
I dont understand India is spending only 3% of the budget in defence which is less than many of the other countries still people like to tell that we are just spending all our budget on defence only..

It isn't 3% of the budget but 3% of the GDP. The budget and the GDP are not the same.
 
Because of lack of transparency and oversight as well as generally poor governance in India, it's hard to tell how much of the budget is actually spent on education. The story is the same in Pakistan, as well. I think China appears to be much better governed, as obvious from the results of higher literacy and better human development levels.

This statement doesn't make any sense. How can a democracy be less transparent than a communist regime like China ? All of China's statistical figures are released by the government and no foreign NGO's are allowed to collect data to make an independent assessment.
Besides, despite all the positive propaganda about China, it is a very corrupt country with no real transparency or right to information allowed. The press is further controlled by the government that prevent negative articles from coming to light. Also, the language barrier and the strict control on foreign media on negative stories hardly qualifies China to be considered "well governed".

In fact, India and Pakistan are much more transparent than China. The Indian budget is reviewed by multiple committees and is disclosed to the public. Same with the Pakistani civilian budget. However, the Chinese budget is merely announced, not verifiable by anybody outside the Chinese government.

Also it is an open secret to the West that the 2.5% GDP that China claims to spend on its military is merely an official number with the real figure being close to 5-9% of its GDP.
 
In your simplistic mind, you don't see the connection between defense and domestic spending.

Not only is there an impact of India's defense spending on its own people in terms of reduction of rampant poverty, disease and illiteracy, it also impacts decisions by your neighbors, thereby affecting the spending priorities of the entire region.

As Col Nair puts it, "The "guns versus butter" argument is valid especially when the guns (and missiles) are not buying the security the country needs against asymmetrical threats from within and without."

It is due to this connection between defense and domestic spending India spends low on defense.Let me remind you something that you are forgetting or ignoring , India spends lower % of its budget in defense compared to the regional average.

Just by reading the the title one could guess that the sole purpose of the post was to bring the Indian govt in bad lights.

From the article which is said to be written by Col.(Retd) Pavan Nair, It leaves China out the equations and surrounds around indo-pak issues.

Btw, India’s spend on logistics activities is equivalent to 13% of its GDP. It is higher than that of the developed nations. ( US-9.90 , Europe- 10% , Japan 11.40% ).

I couldn't find an article on ''India Tops in logistical and Defense Spending'' in your blog. Its a request, Please don't make a living out of writing negatives about India. ( Its about my nation you are writing about ).

Thanks
 
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^^^^

Going by the quality of the article, it will be a tough job making a living out of it..
 
It is due to this connection between defense and domestic spending India spends low on defense.Let me remind you something that you are forgetting or ignoring , India spends lower % of its budget in defense compared to the regional average.

Just by reading the the title one could guess that the sole purpose of the post was to bring the Indian govt in bad lights.

From the article which is said to be written by Col.(Retd) Pavan Nair, It leaves China out the equations and surrounds around indo-pak issues.

Btw, India’s spend on logistics activities is equivalent to 13% of its GDP. It is higher than that of the developed nations. ( US-9.90 , Europe- 10% , Japan 11.40% ).

I couldn't find an article on ''India Tops in logistical and Defense Spending'' in your blog. Its a request, Please don't make a living out of writing negatives about India. ( Its about my nation you are writing about ).

Thanks

IF you read his blog you can trace a lot of misplaced frustration in him.An inferiority complex
 
After reading the hostile comments by a number of Indians in this thread, it is clearly to me that NONE of them have actually read, much less understood, the guest post by Col. Nair. It's a sad story of misplaced hypernationalism that blinds people to some of the equally patriotic but sane Indians who have the best interest of their nation at heart.

For anybody who wants to pursue a serious discussion on this extremely important topic, here are the links again:

Haq's Musings: India's Arms Buildup: Guns Versus Bread

Haq's Musings: India Tops in Illiteracy and Defense Spending
 
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Brothers, Please ignore this thread !
 
After reading the hostile comments by a number of Indians in this thread, it is clearly to me that NONE of them have actually read, much less understood, the guest post by Col. Nair.

Ridiculous. We have understood and refuted your claim of any correlation between spending on defence and education. Please read the previous posts by Skeptic and Beckham carefully. Stop whining and try to counter if you can.

It's a sad story of misplaced hypernationalism

Indeed. Such a thing clearly explains your fascination with writing inaccurate anti India articles.

that blinds people to some of the equally patriotic but sane Indians who have the best interest of their nation at heart.

We do have the best interests of India at heart. That is why we spend more on education than any other South Asian country.

For anybody who wants to pursue a serious discussion on this extremely important topic, here are the links again:

Speaking of your blog, why do you keep posting a link of it in every post you make? This is not an advertisement site.
 
After reading the hostile comments by a number of Indians in this thread, it is clearly to me that NONE of them have actually read, much less understood, the guest post by Col. Nair. It's a sad story of misplaced hypernationalism that blinds people to some of the equally patriotic but sane Indians who have the best interest of their nation at heart.

For anybody who wants to pursue a serious discussion on this extremely important topic, here are the links again:

Haq's Musings: India's Arms Buildup: Guns Versus Bread

Haq's Musings: India Tops in Illiteracy and Defense Spending

Mr. HAQ, First of all you need some education, kindly go to the US and learn first.

Think about Pakistan First, then worry about India, PAK which run on donations, even educations system run on donations think about it. India dont run on donations like yous.

Also see the facts and figures, becasue you making yourself a laughter stock....
 
The human cost of the unfortunate escalation of defense budget by India will mainly be born by its most vulnerable citizens who will probably lose the few crumbs of bread they are forced to live on now. It will continue the horrible sanitation situation that forces two-thirds of Indians to defecate in the open that spreads disease and kills millions of various diseases each year.

India has failed to use a period of high economic growth to lift tens of millions of people out of poverty, falling far short of China’s record in protecting its population from the ravages of chronic hunger, United Nations officials said recently. Last year, British Development Minister Alexander contrasted the rapid growth in China with India's economic success - highlighting government figures that showed the number of poor people had dropped in the one-party communist state by 70% since 1990 but had risen in the world's biggest democracy by 5%.

The World Hunger Index of 88 countries published by IFPRI last year ranked India at 66 while Pakistan was slightly better at 61 and Bangladesh slightly worse at 70.

In the context of unprecedented economic growth (9-10 percent annually) and national food security, over 60 percent of Indian children are wasted, stunted, underweight or a combination of the above. As a result, India ranks number 62 along with Bangladesh at 67 in the PHI (Poverty Hunger Index)ranking out of a total of 81 countries. Both nations are included among the low performing countries in progress towards MDG1 (Millennium Development Goals) with countries such as Nepal (number 58), Ethiopia (number 60), or Zimbabwe (number 74).

Pakistan ranks well ahead of India at 45 and it is included in the medium performing countries. PHI is a new composite indicator – the Poverty and Hunger Index (PHI) – developed to measure countries’ performance towards achieving MDG1 on halving poverty and hunger by 2015. The PHI combines all five official MDG1 indicators, including a) the proportion of population living on less than US$ 1/day, b) poverty gap ratio, c) share of the poorest quintile in national income or consumption, d) prevalence of underweight in children under five years of age, and d) the proportion of population undernourished.

Congress Party leaders had campaigned strongly on their achievement of raising India’s economic growth to 9 per cent and boosting rural welfare. With the exception of Kerala, the situation in India is far worse than the Human Development Index suggests. According to economist Amartya Sen, who won the Nobel Prize for his work on hunger, India has fared worse than any other country in the world at preventing recurring hunger.

India might be an emerging economic power, but it is way behind Pakistan, Bangladesh and even Afghanistan in providing basic sanitation facilities, a key reason behind the death of 2.1 million children under five in the country.

Lizette Burgers, chief of water and environment sanitation of the Unicef, recently said India is making progress in providing sanitation but it lags behind most of the other countries in South Asia. A former Indian minister Mr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh told the BBC that more than 65% of India's rural population defecated in the open, along roadsides, railway tracks and fields, generating huge amounts of excrement every day.

Economically resurgent India is witnessing a rapid unfolding of a female genocide in the making across all castes and classes, including the upper caste rich and the educated. The situation is particularly alarming among upper-caste Hindus in some of the urban areas of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, specially in parts of Punjab, where there are only 300 girls for every 1,000 boys, according to Laura Turquet, ActionAid's women's rights policy official.

I see hunger and poverty and lack of opportunity as the root cause of most of the ethnic, religious and other forms of violence. The situation is further complicated when nations with the largest number of poor and hungry choose to spend more on military than on fighting poverty, hunger and disease.

In fact, letting millions die of hunger each year, is what Amatya Sen calls "quiet violence", a form of ongoing brutality that claims far more lives than all of the other causes of violence combined.

Neither Pakistan nor India can or should continue their misguided arms race, with India using China as its excuse, and Pakistan citing India's current arms buildup, the largest in its history. In Poverty-Hunger Index(PHI), designed to measure progress toward UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), China, ranked 31, is closest to achieving these goals, followed by laggards such as Pakistan at 45, India at 62, and Bangladesh at 67. And clearly, India, lagging behind both China and Pakistan in terms of basic social indicators of hunger and poverty, is fueling this crazy South Asian arms race. India continues to show a total lack of leadership on this front.

The South Asian rivals need to recognize, in words and in deeds, that their people are their biggest resource, who must be developed and made much more productive to make the nations more competitive and powerful economically, politically and militarily.

Haq's Musings: Indian Arms Build Up Prelude to South Asian Arms Race

Haq's Musings: Challenges of Indian Democracy
 
Thanks for caring about our people fellow Pakistanis.... But Let me also make my point clear that, compared to other countries we Spend a very low percentage of Our GDP on defense spendings, just 2-3% , its not our problem that we have a good economy....

Well I guess Pakistan must look at its people first before peeping into the business of Others...
 

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