There is no end to the wars in this segment of the ‘anthropocene epoch’, the age of the humans, a term coined recently by geologists for the period that began with agriculture.

Our own recorded history bears witness to this phenomenon. And because of what and who we are, wars will not end. Armies will continue to be raised, trained, nurtured and deployed. Old conflicts are carried into the new century. We are not too far off the mark from the ‘Hundred years war’ in Europe's history. Conflicts which began more than 65 years ago are still festering; ideological, economic and border issues that might have been settled continue with more belligerence or ferocity than ever creating the tense situation in the Indian subcontinent. We need all our protection forces to guard against every kind of anticipated and unexpected hostile situation. Therefore, there is no question of not having well-trained and well-equipped security forces as well as standing armies.

In the finance budget of 2010–2011, a sum of Rs 14,7344 crores (US$31 billion) has been allocated towards defence, much of which would go towards the proposed modernization of the Forces. The science compoment represented by the DRDO in the previous budget got seven percent (Rs 9,809 crores) of the allocation to run its 51 laboratories, where 5,000 scientists and 25,000 technical and other personnel are employed (www.idsacomments/budgertryfor India's Defence 2010).