India was world’s 4th largest defence spender in 2022: Report

New Delhi: An international report has revealed that India emerged as the fourth-highest spender in military expenditure. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its report that India's military expenditure rose by 6 per cent in 2022.

According to the report, India was third-highest spender earlier, but now Russia climbed to that spot due to a hike in military spending owing to the Ukraine war.

The top five spenders in the world in 2022 were – US ($877 billion), China ($292 billion), Russia ($86.4 billion), India ($81.4 billion) and Saudi Arabia ($75 billion). This accounted for 63 per cent of the world's military spending, as per the SIPRI report. 

Total global military expenditure increased by 3.7 per cent in real terms in 2022, to reach a new high of USD 2,240 billion. Military expenditure in Europe saw its steepest year-on-year increase in at least 30 years.

The 15 largest spenders in 2022 together accounted for 82 per cent of the world military expenditure of USD 1,842 billion.

The report highlighted that the increase in India's spending shows the effects of its border tensions with China and Pakistan. Its expenditure on capital outlays, which funds equipment upgrades for the armed forces and to the military infrastructure along its disputed border with China, amounted to 23 per cent of total military spending in 2022." 

It further said, "Personnel expenses (e.g. salaries and pensions) remained the largest expenditure category in the Indian military budget, accounting for around half of all military spending."

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