India continues to remain the world's largest arms importer, accounting for 14% of the global imports in the 2011-2015 timeframe.
The latest data on international arms transfers released by a global think-tank, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), also shows India's arms imports remain three times greater than those of China and Pakistan. Its biggest suppliers are Russia, the US, Israel and France.
India has spent over $120 billion on arms acquisitions over the last 15 years, most of them from foreign suppliers, and will spend much more than that in the coming decade.
The import bill is further set to zoom upwards with some major deals, without any Make in India component, in the pipeline. This includes the direct purchase of 36 French Rafale fighters for over Rs 60,000 crore and the Rs 39,000-crore acquisition of five advanced Russian S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems.
As reported in The Sunday Standard of the New Indian Express the country’s premier ...