NEW DELHI: While India is focusing on decreasing its dependence on import of military equipment, the country has been included in the list of nations which have spent most on their military. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its data on global military-spending published on Monday says, “The five largest spenders in 2021 were the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom and Russia, together accounting for 62 per cent of expenditure, according to new data on global military spending.”
SIPRI, a Sweden- based think tank, says total global military expenditure increased by 0.7 per cent in real terms in 2021, to reach $2,113 billion. While the world military spending continued to grow in 2021, for the seventh consecutive year, reaching an all-time high of $2.1 trillion, “India’s military spending of $76.6 billion ranked third highest in the world. This was up by 0.9 per cent from 2020 and by 33 per cent from 2012,” says SIPRI.
Although the Covid pandemic crippled economic activities across the globe, it did not affect the expenditure on the military. “Even amid the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, world military-spending hit record levels,” says Dr Diego Lopes da Silva, senior researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme. India’s defence budget for the financial year 2022-23 is Rs 5,25,166 crore. This is an increase of Rs 46,970 crores over last year’s `4,78,196 crore and includes pensions too.