Defence Budget 2021: Guns over butter The Modi government flattens defence spending, hikes allocations for weapons. But there’s no clarity on how the pension bill has been dropped advertisement UPDATED: February 2, 2021 01:04 IST Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane during the Army day Annual Press Conference at Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi, January 2021 (Chandradeep Kumar) Among the most closely anticipated items in Budget 2020-21 was the defence budget. Current military tensions on the border with China in Ladakh have increased costs of the army and air force with the increase in deployment of troops and military aircraft all along the northern borders. The border tensions have also spurred the need to buy new military hardware to urgently plug gaps.