The annual report ‘Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2019’ was released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a Swedish think tank.

Military expenditure across the World

• The global military expenditure rose to $1917 billion in 2019 with India and China emerging among the top three spenders, according to the report.
• In 2019, the top five largest spenders — U.S. ($732 bn), China, India, Russia ($65.1 bn) and Saudi Arabia ($61.9 bn) — accounted for 62% of the global expenditure.
• China’s military expenditure reached $261 billion in 2019, a 5.1% increase compared with 2018, while India’s grew by 6.8% to $71.1 billion.
• In Asia and Oceania, other than India and China, Japan ($47.6 bn) and South Korea ($43.9 bn) were the largest military spenders.

What drives India’s military spending?

• India’s tensions and rivalry with both Pakistan and China are among the major drivers for its increased military spending.
• While India’s defence spending excluding pensions, which constitute a significant part, has been growing in absolute terms, it has been going down as a percentage of its GDP as noted by the report.

Significant rise

• India’s expenditure in 2019 was 6.8% more than that in 2018.
• It grew by 259% over the 30-year period of 1990–2019, and by 37% over the decade of 2010–19.

The Defence expenditure in India is increasing every year in absolute terms, implying higher spending while there has been very selective modernisation of the armed forces. Critically analyse.

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