Defense — COVID19 Lock-down Day 46
2020, When wheel stopped (or slowed down)
Note: This is part of a series of articles I’ve been writing while India is under nationwide lock-down to fight with COVID19 virus. Some are in a form of diary just recording events, some are in form of general thoughts. Today is Day 46.
Week 1 [Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7]
Week 2 [Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14]
Week 3 [Day 15, Day 16, Day 17, Day 18, Day 19, Day 20, Day 21]
Week 4 [Day 22, Day 23, Day 24, Day 25, Day 26, Day 27, Day 28]
Week 5 [Day 29, Day 30, Day 31, Day 32, Day 33, Day 34, Day 35]
Week 6 [Day 36, Day 37, Day 38, Day 39, Day 40, Day 41, Day 42]
Week 7 [Day 43, Day 44, Day 45]
Defense
A common argument I usually hear is, why do defense gets major chunk from National budget. There is no direct way to link the defense budget with common man. Defense is not on list of basic necessities of a common man. But still, many governments across globe spend major chunks of their annual spending on defense sector.
Whenever there is an event of recession, pandemic or disaster, people view defense budget as big eater. Why not, many basic needs across country can be fulfilled with defense budget alone. But is this a right perspective?
Whenever there is question, like this, I usually like to check what is the position of item in question according to life pyramid. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a very good one to start with. After basic needs (the ground layer), the immediate one in pyramid is safety need which brings in defense.
As we move up in pyramid, activities related to psychological and self fulfillment needs occupy the top layers. Which means, at any point of time, lower layers will take precedence over top layers. Today, these layers need not be strictly top to bottom but they may be overlapping owing to the change in lifestyles.
But is all defense budget justified? Yes. Unknown to many people, defense impacts people’s lives in unexpected ways. Several every day products we use once are developed for defense purposes. Some basic things include Internet, GPS, Synthetic Rubber. (Few links 1, 2)
In a disaster it is very important to prioritize spending but it cannot be at the cost of security of nation. Especially with terror attacks happened during past week (in middle of pandemic), there is no doubt with defense budget is justified.
Healthcare neglected?
If we look at figures, healthcare budget (~69k crores) of India is approximately 25% of military budget (471k crores). Statistics can play a mind game when “terms and conditions” are ignored. The same applies here as well.
Why, because we are talking about Government budgets, not private and individuals budgets in these areas. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to present with data on individual spending, but I’m definitely sure that Individual spending on defense is near to zero (after deducting all donations people make).
A small fact, Medical tourism alone in India is valued at roughly 45,300 Crores. Statistics can play mind game.
Yet, the Indian healthcare budget is too low when compared to other countries like USA, China. Per capita, the spending in India is 75$ compared to 420$ in China and 9400$ in USA. It is again unfair to compare India with these two countries whose GDP is way too high compared to India.
Stay safe…
Stay vigilant…
Stay stronger…
