India becomes the world’s largest arms importer

India’s arms imports have more than doubled in the last five years, making it the largest importer of the military equipment for the period.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, India spent billions of dollars to modernise its military arsenal, and the share of its global arms imports grew by 15% in the last five years till the end of 2014.

The statistics show that India alone imported more arms than the second third and fourth biggest importer – Saudi Arabia, China and the United Arab Emirates combined.

India’s imports increased 140% in the last five-year period. During the timespan, India accounted for only 7% of global arms imports whereas China accounted for 9, the research institute, a conflict-and arms-research organisation backed by the Swedish government, said.

New Delhi has so far been unsuccessful in producing competitive indigenously-created weapons and has been highly dependent on its imports.

With India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recently launched “Make in India” anthem, India aims to develop and manufacture indigenously developed cutting-edge weapon systems.

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