China and India are the world's largest importers of military hardware
and are ranked third and 10th respectively among the countries with
the highest defence expenditure in 2007, a Sweden-based peace
institute says.
India spent $24.2 billion or two percent of the world market share on
its military last year, while China spent $58.3 billion or five
percent of the global share, the Stockholm International Peace
Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its annual yearbook released in
Stockholm June 9.
In India's case, 30-35 per cent of its total defence expenditure was
on imports of military hardware, analysts in New Delhi said. In the
case of China, the figure would be closer to 50 per cent, they added.
India also exported military hardware, the bulk of it of the non-
lethal variety, worth $3.5 billion during 2006, the report says.
The US accounted for 45 per cent of last year's global military
expenditure of $1.339 trillion, SIPRI said, adding that the global
increase was six percent in real terms over that of 2006.
With the Indian armed forces embarking on an extensive modernisation
drive, Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram Feb 29 hiked the defence
expenditure for fiscal 2008-09 by 10 percent to Rs.1,056 billion
($26.5 billion) - and promised even more funds if these were
required.
The allocation accounts for 14 per cent of the government's total
spending of Rs.7,508 billion ($188.7 billion) during the fiscal
beginning April 1.
Of the total allocation, Rs.480 billion ($12 billion) has been
earmarked for the purchase of hardware and Rs.579 billion ($14.5
billion) for the three services and for R&D.
With 70 per cent of the hardware in the armed forces' inventory of
foreign origin, this means the country would import Rs.336 billion
($8.4 billion) worth of arms, armaments and equipment during the
current fiscal.
In January, India signed its biggest defence deal so far to purchase
six Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules medium transport planes for
a little over $1 billion (Rs.40 billion).
Last month, the Indian Air Force (IAF) opened responses to a global
tender for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft in a deal that is
valued at $10 billion (Rs.400 billion). The evaluation process till
the contract is finally signed is likely to take six years.
Indian officials are also renegotiating a $1.5 billion deal for
purchasing an aircraft from Russia, saying they might have to accede
to the demand for an additional $1.2 billion as the original deal was
flawed.
Indian defence ministry officials say imports of military hardware
will rise steadily and estimate these at Rs.155 billion ($3.8 bilion)
over the next five years.
Best Jokes, Best Friends, Best Food. Get all this and more on Best of Yahoo! Groups.
No comments:
Post a Comment