According to a recent report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), however, India’s arms imports fell 11% between 2013-17 and 2018-22, the country is still the world’s top importer of military hardware.
Key findings
- India’s share of the global arms imports was the highest in the past five years at 11%, followed by Saudi Arabia (9.6%), Qatar (6.4%), Australia (4.7%) and China (4.7%).
- The US was the world’s topmost military exporter in the past five years, accounting for 40% of global exports, followed by Russia (16%), France (11%), China (5.2%) and Germany (4.2%).
- In 2022, it said India’s imports fell 21% between 2012-16 and 2017-21, but that the country was still the world’s biggest arms importer.
- The reasons for the decline in India’s imports included attempts to replace imports with local makes and a complex procurement process.
- India has taken several steps over the past four to five years to boost self-reliance in defence.
- These include creating a separate budget for buying locally made military hardware, increasing FDI from 49% to 74%, and notifying hundreds of weapons and systems that cannot be imported.
