{"id":33401,"date":"2023-03-14T11:09:13","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T05:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=33401"},"modified":"2025-04-19T22:01:02","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T16:31:02","slug":"sipri-india-remains-biggest-arms-importer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/sipri-india-remains-biggest-arms-importer\/","title":{"rendered":"SIPRI: India remains biggest arms importer"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What are the Key Findings of the SIPRI\u2019s latest data?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What are the Challenges ahead for India and the World?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>According to the SIPRI, India remained the world\u2019s largest arms importer for the five-year period between 2018-22 even though its arms imports dropped by 11% between 2013\u201317 and 2018\u201322.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>SIPRI is an <strong>independent <\/strong>international institute <strong>dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Established in <strong>1966 <\/strong>and based in Stockholm (Sweden), SIPRI provides data, analysis and recommendations, to <strong>policymakers, researchers, media and the interested public<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It is regularly ranked among the most respected<strong> think tanks<\/strong> worldwide.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the Key Findings of the SIPRI\u2019s latest data?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>India as the world\u2019s top importer of arms:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>India <\/strong>continues to be the<strong> world\u2019s largest arms importer<\/strong> (a position it has held for the period 1993\u20132022) followed by Saudi Arabia<strong>. <\/strong>India accounted for <strong>11%<\/strong> of the total global imports in 2018-2022.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Russia <\/strong>was the largest supplier of arms to India in both 2013\u201317 and 2018\u201322, but its share of total Indian arms imports fell from 64% to 45% while <strong>France <\/strong>(29%) and the <strong>US <\/strong>(11%) emerged as the 2nd and 3rd largest supplier between 2018-22.\n<ul>\n<li>However, Russia\u2019s position is under pressure due to strong competition, increased Indian arms production and constraints on Russia\u2019s arms exports due to <strong>invasion of Ukraine.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Among the top 10 arms exporters for the period <u>2018-22<\/u>, <strong>India was the biggest arms export market to three countries<\/strong> &#8211; Russia, France and Israel and the second largest export market to South Korea.<\/li>\n<li>India was also the third largest market for <strong>South Africa<\/strong> which was ranked 21 in the list of arms exporters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/osgafJzcRvs0iK2JG-7ioGzooWg8PFOwmd0XTZyimImmzprwNMcz8lJf-b-eLVH_Xd_8QCpOBdW0TqYR8DGy57JrTAQKbjfsWqw4OgvaC3RhRqQLigxDd-ydVFxvrS-99Q93dVTtaQaAe5HZRx4xXEk\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: SIPRI Data on India\u2019s Arms Imports<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>India\u2019s arms imports from France<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li>Increased by <strong>489%<\/strong> between 2013\u201317 and 2018\u201322, India\u2019s arms imports from France included 62 combat aircraft and four submarines.<\/li>\n<li>France therefore <strong>displaced the USA<\/strong> to become the second largest supplier to India in 2018\u201322.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>India\u2019s imports dropped by 11% between 2013\u201317 and 2018\u201322: <\/strong>The decrease can be attributed to several factors including &#8211;\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s slow and complex arms procurement process,<\/li>\n<li>Efforts to diversify its arms suppliers, and<\/li>\n<li>Attempts to replace imports with major arms that are designed and produced domestically.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>What drives India\u2019s Demand for Arms? <\/strong>India\u2019s tensions with Pakistan and China largely drive its demand for arms imports.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<strong>India as an arms exporter:<\/strong> India was the third largest arms supplier to Myanmar after Russia and China accounting for 14% of its imports.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<strong>Overall<\/strong>: The U.S. share of global arms exports increased from 33% to 40% while Russia\u2019s fell from 22% to 16%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the Challenges ahead for India and the World?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India continues to languish in the <strong>strategically-vulnerable as well as embarrassing position<\/strong> of being the world\u2019s largest arms importer, despite the government\u2019s thrust on \u201c<strong>Make in India<\/strong>\u201d in defence production.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Russian exports to India decreased <\/strong>by 37% between the two periods. In contrast, exports to China (+39%) and Pakistan (14%) increased between 2013\u201317 and 2018\u201322.<\/li>\n<li>China supplied 77% of Pakistan\u2019s arms imports in 2018\u201322.<\/li>\n<li>While the global level of international arms transfers decreased by 5.1%, <strong>imports of major arms by European states increased<\/strong> by 47% between 2013\u201317 and 2018\u201322 in the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Strategic competition also continues elsewhere<\/strong> &#8211; arms imports to East Asia have increased and those to the Middle East remain at a high level.<\/li>\n<li>All the above are a clear indication of the \u2018<strong>security dilemma<\/strong>\u2019 fueling arm race in different regions of the world and threatening <strong>world peace<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) Why does India import the most weapons?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Because to anticipated threats from China and Pakistan, as well as severe delays in domestic manufacture, India has big ambitions for importing weapons.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) Why does India continue to be the greatest weapon importer in the world?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>This underlines India\u2019s persisting failure to build a strong defence-industrial base with much larger private sector participation as well as the poor performance by the DRDO, defence PSUs and ordnance factories over the years.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/india-remains-biggest-arms-importer-between-2018-22-despite-drop-in-overall-imports\/article66614120.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>India remains biggest arms importer between 2018-22 despite drop in overall imports<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/india\/india-remains-worlds-largest-arms-importer-with-russia-france-us-as-the-biggest-suppliers\/articleshowprint\/98612920.cms?val=3728\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>ToI<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Video:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rszdrLXzLE8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rszdrLXzLE8<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SIPRI is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, and arms control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}