The year 2020 has been uniquely challenging for India. On one hand, the country is grappling with the raging coronavirus pandemic, while on the other, it is stuck fighting China at the border. Amid this, the debate that presents itself is whether India spend more on healthcare and defence?

Close to 70 per cent of the citizens believe that the government should spend more on healthcare as well as defence, the India Today-Karvy Insights Ltd Mood of the Nation poll has found.

68 per cent of the respondents said that the government needs to increase spending on both public health as well as defence. However, when the choice was between the two sectors, only 7 people want the government to pick defence over healthcare.

The survey comes at a time when India is the third worst-hit nation by coronavirus globally and has more than 20 lakh cases of the viral infection. Of this, 60,7384 are still active cases, which need proper care and attention from healthcare facilities.

With medical experts suggesting India is nowhere near a peak, bolstering of healthcare infrastructure becomes vital to ensure India can withstand multiple waves of the pandemic before a vaccine is created.

The Covid-19 pandemic crisis is a reminder of the importance of investing in the healthcare sector for any country. The total per capita government spending on healthcare has nearly doubled from 1,008 per person in FY15 to 1,944 in FY20. India’s total healthcare spending (out-of-pocket and public), at 3.6% of GDP, as per OECD, is way lower than that of other countries but is still low.

In fact, more than 60 per cent of India’s population is at higher risk of contracting Covid-19 because of widespread poverty and poor accessibility to health facilities, a study published in the medical journal “The Lancet” has warned.

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On the other hand, India also needs to up its defence expenditure if it is going to continue to face off against formidable opponent China. While both countries are nuclear powers, India needs more defence acquisition to match China’s military might.

According to defence experts, the gap between India’s budgetary allocations to defence and its requirements has risen steadily to about 30 per cent in the last seven years. The coronavirus pushed the Centre to further impose cuts across ministries, with the defence ministry which consumes just one-seventh of the budget — also asked to further limit expenditures.