India: 4th Largest Military Spender in 2023

Context

As a document titled “India Became the Fourth Highest Spender on Its Military According to SIPRI Report” states, India became the fourth largest spender on the military in the world in 2023. The game-changing move is the most evident indicator of the country’s shift from traditional to modern multipurpose armed forces that is also at the international level.

Details about it

• The SIPRI report tackles the question about which location is most crucial for the Earth.
• According to the reports, in 2023 there will have been 1.92 trillion dollars allocated for military financing and in the global scenario military expenditure is escalating at all levels.
• The USA is the first country in the world with the largest military budget spending that amounts to 41% of the entire global military expenditure.
• Beijing, ranked as the 4th highest donor in terms of military expenditure in the world with an approximate 15% contribution to the total amount, belongs to the group of countries that form the US, UK and EU in that respect.
• India is the 4th largest buyer of weapons in the world. In terms of military spending, she holds a place as a recipient of around 5 percent of world wide military expenditure.
• Russia, Japan, and Germany are 9%, 3%, and 3% of the military spending in the world, respectively, when it comes to percentages of global military expenditures.
• The SIPRI report exhibits a holistic breakdown of the military outlay of India, identifying a particular set of expenditures as shown in the paragraphs that follow.

Statistics about the Indian Military Expenditure

• Workforces add up to accumulate the statistics of 30% of the total expenditure for the sum of $33.6 billion.
• Operations and maintenance: $20.8 billion (26%) and this is what is spent as expenses.
• According to the budget, procurement was the biggest single category of expenditure with $15.4 billion, which accounted for 19% of the total spending estimated for the year.
• Almost half the budget for $10.6 billion (13%) is spent on research connected to public health issues.
• The infrastructure budget totals to $5.5 billion spending which is only 7% of the total.
• The End, the amount, which is $4.5 billion, goes for 6% of the budget part.

Reasons of Indian military expenditure

• On the one hand, the gloomy prospect on the territory and the possible contention with China bring about the dilemmatic position to deal with the non-standard role involved in the foreign affairs business.
• Secondly, it is very essential to have a sophisticated and recent military to be able to handle the different threatening issues that come with being in conflict.
• Further, India is looking through its domestic defence equipment industry in order to create self-reliance for the privation of importing weapons.
• The military spending India has allocated as a fourth largest military spender in the world and the region confirms that modern India is not only gaining clout in the region but can also press a military onslaught outside its boundaries.
• In SIPRI’s report weapons spending in India is compared to reports from other countries and it also gives information regarding where the money is positioned in the most active areas of the military budget.
• The top 1% acquired unimaginable wealth and subsequently, the other 99% experienced a sluggish income growth. The US spends a record-breaking $2743 billion on their military budget, amounting to 41% of global statistics.
• China is the world’s second largest source of military funding after the US as China and its allies spend around 15% a year which makes the global spending of $261billion annually.
• Russia is the second country on the planet which has the most expenditures on the military as for last year it paid $154 bln for the military matters, so 9% of all worldwide military expenditures are sent by Russia.
• India is estimated to allocate Rs.814 billion from its fiscal budget for protecting the country which is equivalent to 5% of the budget.
• The other important figure being the budget allocation of $50.3 trillion or around 3% of the global military expenditures, this is all taken in by Japan as her defence expense.
• Germany contributes the world average of approximately 3% pertaining to or $49.5 billion to be equal to $49.5 billion.

Source: The Indian Express

UPSC Mains Practice Question

Q. Discuss the implications of India being ranked as the 4th largest military spender in 2023, as reported by SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute). Assess the potential impact on regional security dynamics and India’s strategic posture in the context of evolving geopolitical challenges.

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