India has now become one of the world’s top 5 defence spenders joining the likes of China and US, reflecting geopolitical tensions that the nation is going through. Apparently, India is also relying on imported weapons and stretched out personnel costs.
A report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released on Wednesday revealed that New Delhi’s spending on defence has surpassed that of France. Reportedly, India’s spending figure has risen by 5.5% reaching 63.9 Billion Dollars in 2017.
The group further mentioned that the worldwide defence spending last year was roughly 2.2% of the global gross domestic product and had risen to 17.3 Trillion Dollars. In the recent years, US and China have been consistently dominating the list of biggest defence spenders. While the former has spent 610 Billion Dollars, the latter has spent 228 Billion Dollars.
However, now it seems that the balance is shifting a little towards Asia, Oceanic and Middle East, driven by countries other than China like India and Saudi Arabia. Talking precisely about Aisa, China spends far more than any other country in the continent.
Reportedly, the share of worldwide military expenditure increased from 5.8% in 2008 to 13% in 2017. China’s defence spending per year has grown considerably between 2007 and 2016. As per the US Department report on China’s military, even as Chin has a slow economic growth, the leaders seem to be spending more for defence in anticipation of the future.
However, when it comes to India, the country is spending more on the personnel salaries than on the equipment. The rise in defence spending is largely because of the salaries and pensions meant for roughly 1.4 million serving personnel and over 2 million veterans. While 63% goes to salary, 20% is spent on maintenance, 14% on military modernization, and remaining 3% contributes to infrastructure.
