India third highest spender on military budget, only after US and China

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the military expenditure of all the countries was USD 2.1 trillion in 2021, with India having the third-highest military spending in the world, only after the US and China.

The top five countries, which included the UK and Russia, together spent 62% of the 2113 billion USD, which was a 0.7% increase from 2020.

NDTV quoted Dr Diego Lopes da Silva, senior researcher with SIPRI's Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, as saying, “Even amid the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, world military spending hit record levels. There was a slowdown in the rate of real-terms growth due to inflation. In nominal terms, however, military spending grew by 6.1 per cent.”

While in 2020, the defence expenditure accounted for 2.3% of the global GDP, in 2021, it decreased to 2.2%. The US spent USD 801 billion, 1.4% less than what they spent in 2020. China spent USD 293 billion, 4.7% more than what they spent in 2020. India spent USD 76.6 billion, which was 0.9% more than what it spent in 2020 and 33% more than what it spent in 2012. SIPRI mentioned that 64% of India’s defence budget “was earmarked for acquisitions of domestically produced arms,” reported NDTV.

The fourth-place holder, UK, spent USD 68.4 billion, 3% more than what it spent in 2020. Russia spent USD 65.9 billion, which was 2.9% more than what it spent in 2020.