Modernisation Plan-IV for Central Armed Police Forces (2022)

Policy Update
Tanisha

Background

Modernisation Plan-IV for Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security and is being implemented by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as a Central Sector Scheme, with a total financial outlay of ₹1,523 crore. The scheme’s implementation period was announced as 1 February 2022 to 31 March 2026 in the original approval release (MHA, 2022), though a subsequent MHA release restates the start date as 1 January 2022 (MHA, 2025).

The scheme covers all seven CAPFs: Assam Rifles (AR), the Border Security Force (BSF), the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the National Security Guard (NSG) and the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) (MHA, 2022).

The plan is a direct successor to Modernisation Plan-II and Plan-III, and its stated objective is to equip CAPFs with state-of-the-art weaponry, communication systems, protective gear, surveillance and border-guarding technology, armoured and special transport vehicles, and upgraded IT solutions, calibrated to each force’s deployment pattern and operational theatre, whether anti-Naxal operations, border guarding or counter-insurgency (MHA, 2022).

Functioning

Funds under the ₹1,523 crore outlay are allocated force-wise according to deployment pattern and operational theatre. In an early written reply to the Rajya Sabha, the government confirmed that CRPF, which anchors Left-Wing Extremism and internal-security duties, had been allocated ₹484.58 crore under the scheme (MHA, 2022b). Procurement spans weaponry, communication technology, personal protective equipment such as bullet-resistant jackets, ballistic helmets and protective shields, counter-IED and bomb disposal equipment, surveillance systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, mobility platforms, ICT infrastructure and training-facility upgrades.

The plan sits alongside parallel welfare and capacity-building initiatives, undertaken jointly by MHA and the National Health Authority. The Ayushman CAPF healthcare platform was launched by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Guwahati, Assam, on 23 January 2021, and was subsequently extended across the country in a phased manner (MHA, 2021). As of 28 November 2024, 41,21,443 Ayushman CAPF cards had been generated for CAPF, AR and NSG personnel and their families, with 14,77,064 claims settled under the scheme (MHA, 2024b). Cashless treatment is currently available at 2,006 CGHS-empanelled hospitals and 32,100 Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY-empanelled hospitals that have signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Health Authority (MHA, 2025).

On the training side, 83 CAPF training institutions have been established nationally, with Madhya Pradesh hosting the largest single share at 15 centres; ₹755.42 crore was allocated for CAPF training infrastructure between 2020 and 2025, of which ₹743.46 crore had been spent (MHA, 2026a). A separate Parliament reply confirms the government has also approved a new Central Jungle Warfare College for the CRPF in Bijapur district, Chhattisgarh, alongside a new CISF Regional Training Centre in Kishanganj, Bihar (MHA, 2026c).

Performance

Actual expenditure under Modernisation Plan-IV rose sharply and unevenly across its implementation window. Year-wise actual expenditure climbed from ₹77.68 crore in 2022-23 to ₹97.80 crore in 2023-24 and ₹119.23 crore in 2024-25, before jumping to ₹481.02 crore in 2025-26 (ETV Bharat, 2026). This late surge is consistent with a pattern common to capital-heavy procurement schemes, where contract finalisation and year-end deliveries concentrate spending toward the close of a scheme’s implementation window, though it also means the bulk of the outlay was absorbed only in the scheme’s final full year.

Figure 1. Actual annual expenditure under Modernisation Plan-IV, 2022-23 to 2025-26. Source: Ministry of Home Affairs (2026b) written reply to Parliament.

Force-wise, CRPF has received the largest single allocation, reflecting its Left-Wing Extremism (LSE) and internal-security weighting, of which ₹140.08 crore was spent in 2025-26 alone (MHA, 2026b). For FY 2026-27, allocations reported up to 26 July 2026 continued under the scheme’s name across all seven forces (MHA, 2026b). For FY 2026-27, allocations reported up to 26 July 2026 continued under the scheme’s name across all seven forces (MHA, 2026b), a point taken up further below since the scheme’s notified implementation period ended on 31 March 2026.

Impact

On the government’s own account to Parliament, the modernisation drive has enhanced operational preparedness, mobility, situational awareness, intelligence gathering, surveillance and response capabilities across the CAPFs, helping them address cross-border infiltration, terrorism, Left-Wing Extremism and insurgency (MHA, 2026b). The expansion of training infrastructure, 83 institutions plus the new Jungle Warfare College and CISF Regional Training Centre, is positioned as the capacity-building complement to this hardware modernisation (MHA, 2026a, 2026b).

These operational and institutional gains sit alongside a persistent, separately documented personnel-welfare strain. In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, the government reported 730 suicides among CAPF, NSG and AR personnel between 2020 and 2024 (144, 157, 138, 157 and 134 in successive years), alongside 55,555 voluntary retirements and resignations over the same period (MHA, 2024a).

The same reply noted that a Task Force report on remedial measures for the prevention of suicide and fratricide in CAPFs and AR had been circulated to all forces for action, alongside measures such as regulated duty hours, transparent transfer and leave policies, and expanded medical and psychological support (MHA, 2024a). Taken together, the record suggests that equipment-side modernisation under Plan-IV has not, on its own, resolved a separately tracked human-capital strain within the same forces.

Emerging Issues

Three issues follow from where Modernisation Plan-IV now stands, at or just past the close of its notified implementation window.

A scheme past its notified end date, without a confirmed successor. Modernization Plan-IV’s implementation period was notified as running to 31 March 2026, from a start date given as 1 February 2022 in the original approval release (MHA, 2022) and as 1 January 2022 in a later MHA release (MHA, 2025). Yet force-wise allocations under the same scheme name continued to be reported for FY 2026-27, with figures given up to 26 July 2026 (MHA, 2026b). No Modernization Plan-V has been publicly confirmed as of this writing, leaving the scheme’s legal and budgetary status after its stated end date unclear.
Procurement pacing concentrated at the back end. The jump from ₹119.23 crore (2024-25) to ₹481.02 crore (2025-26) in actual expenditure indicates that a large share of the five-year outlay was absorbed only in the scheme’s final full year (MHA, 2026b). This mirrors a procurement-delay pattern documented across Plan-II, Plan-III and Plan-IV in CAPF literature, and raises the question of whether front-loaded planning or expanded contracting capacity could shorten this lag under any successor scheme.
Hardware modernisation and personnel welfare are tracked on separate ledgers. Equipment-focused metrics (outlay, procurement categories, force-wise spend) and personnel-welfare metrics (attrition, suicides, working-hour reforms) are reported to Parliament through entirely separate written replies (MHA, 2022; MHA, 2024a), with no evident mechanism linking the two. This makes it difficult to assess whether operational modernisation has had any measurable bearing on the welfare indicators reported alongside it.

Way Forward

Publish a formal status update on Modernisation Plan-IV’s closure or extension, clarifying whether a Plan-V has been approved, and if not, under what authority FY 2026-27 allocations are being made against a scheme whose notified implementation period has ended.
Track the procurement completion rate achieved by 31 March 2026 against the ₹1,523 crore sanctioned outlay, and publish force-wise utilisation rates alongside the allocation figures already disclosed to Parliament.
Front-load contracting and delivery schedules in any successor plan, using the 2025-26 expenditure spike as a documented baseline for how much procurement activity is currently deferred to a scheme’s closing year.
Link hardware-modernisation reporting to personnel-welfare indicators in a single consolidated framework, so that operational capability gains and the attrition and suicide data already collected by the Ministry can be read against each other rather than tracked in parallel.

References

ETV Bharat. (2026, August 4). New weapons, smarter surveillance: CAPFs gain edge in border, internal security missions. https://www.etvbharat.com/en/bharat/new-weapons-smarter-surveillance-capfs-gain-stronger-edge-in-border-and-internal-security-missions-enn26080406342
Ministry of Home Affairs. (2021, January 23). Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah launched ‘Ayushman CAPF’ scheme for personnel and dependents of Central Armed Police Forces during a function in Guwahati, Assam [Press release]. Press Information Bureau, Government of India. https://www.pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1691783
Ministry of Home Affairs. (2022, March 4). Modernisation Plan-IV for Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) [Press release]. Press Information Bureau, Government of India. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1802835
Ministry of Home Affairs. (2022b, April 6). Modernisation scheme for CRPF (Unstarred Question No. 3903) [Written reply, Rajya Sabha]. https://www.mha.gov.in/MHA1/Par2017/pdfs/par2022-pdfs/RS06042022/3903.pdf
Ministry of Home Affairs. (2024a, December 4). Attrition and suicides amongst CAPFs (Unstarred Question No. 1036) [Written reply, Rajya Sabha]. https://www.mha.gov.in/MHA1/Par2017/pdfs/par2024-pdfs/RS04122024/1036.pdf
Ministry of Home Affairs. (2024b). Ayushman CAPF health scheme [Press release]. Press Information Bureau, Government of India. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=2080662
Ministry of Home Affairs. (2025, August 12). Modernisation of CAPF [Press release]. Press Information Bureau, Government of India. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2155639
Ministry of Home Affairs. (2026a, January 31). 83 CAPF training institutions established across India [Written reply to an unstarred question, Lok Sabha]. Government of India. (Content accessed via secondary press reporting of the reply; primary document not independently located.)
Ministry of Home Affairs. (2026b, August 4). Modernisation Plan-IV for CAPFs: Force-wise and year-wise expenditure [Written reply, Lok Sabha]. Parliament Questions & Answers, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. https://www.mha.gov.in/MHA1/Par2017/PArQueAnsPage-new.html
Ministry of Home Affairs. (2026c, August 11). Government undertaking modernisation of CAPF training centres [Written reply, Parliament]. Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2297623&reg=48&lang=2

About the Contributor

Tanisha is a Political Science graduate (BA Hons, University of Delhi; MA, IGNOU), currently pursuing a Diploma in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding, with research interests spanning international relations, environmental governance, and gender studies. She is keen to build a career in policy research.

Acknowledgements

The author sincerely expresses gratitude to the reviewers Manish Prakash Shinde and Ninchen Tamang for their valuable comments, constructive suggestions, and continuous guidance throughout the preparation of this article. Their insightful feedback significantly enhanced the clarity, organisation, and analytical quality of the manuscript. The author also acknowledges the support and encouragement received during the research and writing process, which contributed to the successful completion of this work.