NEW DELHI: India has for the first time emerged among the top three nations in the world in terms of military expenditure, though the US spends more than 10 times and China almost four times its defence budget.
Latest data released by global think-tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) early on Monday shows the total global military expenditure rose to $1,917 billion in 2019, an increase of 3.6% from 2018.
The five biggest spenders were the US ($732 billion), China ($261 billion), India ($71.1 billion), Russia ($65.1 billion) and Saudi Arabia ($61.9 billion), together accounting for 62% of the global military expenditure. “This is the first time that two Asian states (China was second in 2018 also, but India was fourth) have featured among the top three military spenders,” said SIPRI.
India’s annual military expenditure, of course, includes a huge pension bill for around 3.3 million retired veterans and defence civilians. In the 2020-21 defence budge
