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India is the third largest military spender after the United States and China, with the expenditure going up by 0.9 per cent from 2020 to $76.6 billion, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a global report released on Monday.
“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,” said SIPRI report. The new data shared by SIPRI on global military spending acknowledges the Indian government’s push to strengthen the indigenous arms industry and said that 64 per cent of capital outlays in the military budget of 2021 were earmarked for acquisitions of domestically produced arms.
“Amid ongoing tensions and border disputes with China and Pakistan that occasionally spill over into armed clashes, India has prioritised the modernisation of its armed forces and self-reliance in arms production,” the report observed.
Overall, the total global military expenditure increased by 0.7 per cent in real terms in 2021, to reach $2113 billion, announced SIPRI. The five largest spenders in 2021 --United States, China, India, the United Kingdom and Russia -- together account for 62 per cent of the expenditure, pointed out the report. The US and China alone spent 52 per cent, the report explained.
Global military spending
Global spending in 2021 was 0.7 per cent higher than in 2020 and 12 per cent higher than in 2012, it stated. The economic effect of the Covid-19 pandemic has not stopped the continuous upward trend in world military expenditure seen since 2015. “As a result of the strong economic recovery across the globe in 2021, world military spending as a share of world gross domestic product—the global military burden—reached 2.2 per cent, down from 2.3 per cent in 2020,” the SIPRI report highlighted. Average military spending as a share of government expenditure in 2021 remained the same as in 2020, at 5.9 per cent.
The SIPRI data showed that military expenditure grew in three of the world’s five regions in 2021. Spending increased in Asia and Oceania (3.5 per cent), Europe (3.0 per cent) and Africa (1.2 per cent) but it decreased in the Middle East (–3.3 per cent) and the Americas (–1.2 per cent).
US military spending of $801 billion in 2021 was actually a drop of 1.4 per cent from 2020. US funding for military research and development (R&D) rose by 24 per cent between 2012 and 2021, while arms procurement funding fell by 6.4 per cent over the same period. ‘The increase in R&D spending over the decade 2012–21 suggests that the United States is focusing more on next-generation technologies,’ said Alexandra Marksteiner, Researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.
According to the report, China allocated an estimated $293 billion for its defence budget in 2021, an increase of 4.7 per cent compared with 2020. The 2021 Chinese budget was the first under the 14th Five-Year Plan, which runs until 2025.
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