Gulf of Hormuz "EMPOWER IAS"

 

In news:

• The Chinese are about to extend their geographical advantage by building a new high-speed rail from Chengdu, running close by and parallel to the Arunachal border, up to Lhasa.

Strait of Hormuz:

• The waterway separates Iran and Oman, linking the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
• The Strait is 33 km wide at its narrowest point, but the shipping lane is just three km wide in either direction.
• Most crude exported from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the UAE, Kuwait and Iraq – all members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) – is shipped through this waterway.
• It is also the route used for nearly all the liquefied natural gas (LNG) produced by the world’s biggest LNG exporter, Qatar.
• The UAE and Saudi Arabia have sought to find other routes to bypass the Strait, including building more oil pipelines.

 

Manpower and Defence Budget: Comparison with China

• The Indian army, according to diverse sources, numbers between 12,50,000 and 14,00,000 officers and men.
• Chinese PLA actually has only 9,75,000 officers and men.
• They have downsized their army.
• China is an aspiring world power that spends $252 billion on its defence budget, as compared to $72.9 billion that India spends.
• Both countries limit their budget to around 2 per cent of their GDP, which in China’s case is five times our size.

 

Why does India need to reduce manpower in defence?

• Expensive: As the years pass, manpower is going to get increasingly expensive/
• Also, our strategic options get constrained because the army gets 61 per cent of the defence budget.
• A major portion of the budget is spent on manpower: 81 per cent of the army budget goes into manpower and maintenance.
• We need to downsize the army by 2,00,000 men over five years through retirement and reduced recruitment.
• The reduction in manpower will save approximately Rs 30,000 crore, which can be equally divided between the three services.