According to recently released report of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India has emerged as fifth largest military spender in 2017. India had spent $63.9 billion on defence in 2017, an increase of 5.5% compared with 2016, when it was in the sixth spot overall.
Global defence spending: The world’s five biggest military spenders in 2017 are United States ($610 billion), China ($228 billion), Saudi Arabia (69.4 billion), Russia (66.3 billion) and India ($63.9 billion). They together accounted for 60% of global military spending.
India’s defence spending:
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It was higher than that of France ($57.8 billion), UK ($47.2 billion) and Germany ($44.3 billion) in 2017.
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It has grown in past decade for several reasons, including mounting salary bill for about 1.4 million serving personnel and pensions for more than 2 million veterans, projects worth billions of dollars to induct new warships, combat fighter jets, helicopters, artillery guns and infantry weapons and to enhance capabilities.
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India has been world’s largest weapons importer in last five years and arms exported by US to India during 2013-17 registered a 557% jump when compared to 2008-12.
China:
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It was second-largest defence spender globally in 2017.
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It had increased its defence spending by 5.6% to an estimated $228 billion in 2017.
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It defence spending share in global military expenditure rose from 5.8% in 2008 to 13% in 2017.
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It also accounted for 48% of Asian total and was 3.6 times that of India.
Union Budget 2018-19
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The military budget had slipped to just 1.57% of the GDP.
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The total figure includes Rs. 99,563 crore for buying new weapons and systems, which is up from Rs. 86,488 crore in previous fiscal.
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The budget had breached Rs. 4 lakh-crore mark after factoring in defence pensions (Rs. 1.08 lakh crore).
