India becomes world’s largest arms importer

[CardSharp]

@ the original topic

Here is the original source of the news.


Export (listed in millions of USD$)


TIV of arms exports from the top 50 largest exporters, 2010-2010
Generated: 15 March 2011

Rank 2010-2010 Rank 2009-2009 Supplier 2010 2010-2010
1 1 USA 8641 8641
2 2 Russia 6039 6039
3 3 Germany (FRG) 2340 2340
4 6 China 1423 1423
5 5 UK 1054 1054
6 4 France 834 834
7 11 Sweden 806 806
8 10 Italy 627 627
9 7 Spain 513 513
10 9 Netherlands 503 503
11 8 Israel 472 472
12 15 Canada 258 258
13 12 Ukraine 201 201
14 29 Brazil 179 179
15 18 Norway 141 141
16 13 Switzerland 137 137
17 22 Australia 119 119
18 17 South Korea 95 95
19 19 Uzbekistan 90 90
20 21 Jordan 88 88
21 16 South Africa 80 80
22 45 Saudi Arabia 58 58
23 46 UAE 37 37
24 27 Finland 34 34
25 32 Austria 33 33
26 25 Turkey 31 31
27 30 Libya 28 28
28 23 Singapore 27 27
29 31 Syria 25 25
30 38 Unknown country 20 20
31 44 Montenegro 14 14
32 37 Denmark 11 11
33 20 Poland 8 8
34 14 Belgium 7 7
35 39 Iran 5 5
36 42 Serbia 5 5
37 33 India 4 4
38 34 Czech Republic 3 3
39 24 Portugal 0 0
40 26 Belarus 0
41 28 Venezuela 0
42 40 Romania 0
43 36 Bulgaria 0
44 35 Moldova 0
45 43 Malaysia 0
46 41 Ireland 0

 

[CardSharp]

Import (listed in millions of USD$)


TIV of arms imports to the top 50 largest importers, 2010-2010
Generated: 15 March 2011



Rank 2010-2010 Rank 2009-2009 Recipient 2010 2010-2010
1 1 India 3337 3337
2 6 Pakistan 2580 2580
3 11 Australia 1677 1677
4 9 South Korea 1131 1131
5 2 Singapore 1078 1078
6 17 Portugal 941 941
7 8 USA 893 893
8 5 Algeria 791 791
9 10 Saudi Arabia 787 787
10 4 Greece 703 703
11 30 Egypt 681 681
12 7 China 559 559
13 19 UK 518 518
14 50 Viet Nam 515 515
15 14 UAE 493 493
16 12 Turkey 468 468
17 18 Iraq 464 464
18 21 Chile 434 434
19 3 Malaysia 411 411
20 22 Afghanistan 407 407
21 41 Canada 373 373
22 20 Japan 369 369
23 23 Venezuela 365 365
24 32 Brazil 314 314
25 27 Spain 313 313
26 13 Norway 205 205
27 15 Indonesia 198 198
28 44 Nigeria 189 189
29 52 Mexico 188 188
30 36 South Africa 183 183
31 25 Colombia 172 172
32 31 Syria 167 167
33 29 Netherlands 162 162
34 37 Taiwan 143 143
35 33 Poland 142 142
36 63 Morocco 138 138
37 46 France 120 120
38 49 Ecuador 116 116
39 28 Jordan 114 114
40 51 Romania 109 109
41 39 Germany (FRG) 101 101
42 47 Iran 88 88
43 45 Italy 85 85
44 53 Thailand 83 83
45 70 Lithuania 81 81
46 109 Myanmar 76 76
47 90 Slovenia 73 73
48 123 Kenya 73 73
49 92 Czech Republic 73 73
50 58 Finland 72 72

 

[CardSharp]

The data was generate by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and their searchable database can be found here.

SIPRI Arms Transfers Database — www.sipri.org

 

[CardSharp]

What is a surprise is that Pakistan jumped from the 6th biggest importer in 2009 to the second largest importer in 2010.

1 1 India 3337 3337
2 6 Pakistan 2580 2580
3 11 Australia 1677 1677
4 9 South Korea 1131 1131

But these figures probably fluctuate due to the signing of large contracts year to year.

 

[CardSharp]

Also China's rank jumped from 7th largest importer of arms to 12th largest between 2009 to 2010.

12 7 China 559 559

 

[CardSharp]

Let's think about this way. Imagine this graph is about the % of money spent on arms import versus money spent on development, and not about internet TV versus cable regular TV.

China is the blue line, India is the red line. China has been cutting the amount it needs to import, India has poured it's growing budget into more imports.

To back up my assertions here I've downloaded data from 1970 -2010 of millions spent on arms import.

India

From 1970

1230 1647 1882 1256 1252 985 1834 2684 1379 1379 1910 2365 2361 2664 2527 2910 4067 3920 4058 3954 2746 1968 1305 726 834 1413 787 1650 732 1082 914 1251 1855 2808 2237 1059 1287 2185 1794 2537 3337

China

From 1970

2 2 2 3 3 3 3 75 86 12 7 2 15 12 71 110 17 62 83 126 215 245 1253 1188 258 657 1346 810 343 1772 1994 3324 2863 2233 3141 3536 2860 1693 1618 993 559

Clearly China is winding down its imports as India is winding up its imports of arms. (see bolded 2004 -2010)

 

[zakiahmed]

why india is importing such huze amount of Weapons!!??
china has economic reason..
but what about india???

 

[CardSharp]

Five year trend of arms import.

 

[Hutchroy]

why india is importing such huze amount of Weapons!!??
china has economic reason..
but what about india???

India's Economy is about NINE TIMES that of Pakistan.

India's Defence Imports are US Dollars 3337 Million.

Pakistan's Defence Imports are US Dollars 2580 Million.

As such India's Defence Imports are only 1.3 Times that of Pakistan.

As such your question should be Why is Pakistan Importing such Huge Amount of Weapons!!??

Still puzzled??

 

[BigTree.CN]

India can't afford to do that, but there's been significant decrease of defense budget this year which is a step in the right direction. Spending 1.8% of the GDP in defense doesn't hurt much.

1.8%? You have no idea of the actual Indian defence budget?

 

[Kyusuibu Honbu]

1.8%? You have no idea of the actual Indian defence budget?

Modest-hike-in-defence-spending

Thats our budget allocation for 2011-2012