India has fourth biggest defence budget in the world, says report

India has become one of the top defence spenders globally for the first time in 2016 and likely to surpass the United Kingdom in next two years, a report said.

According to IHS Markit report, in this year, India overtook Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the country with the fourth biggest defence budget in the world. 

With growth expected to accelerate over the next two years, India will become the third largest defence budget globally in 2018, surpassing the United Kingdom, the report said.

"Procurement spending has been constrained in India over the last three years as personnel costs have increased,” Craig Caffrey, principal analyst, IHS Jane’s said.

“However, what we expect to see from 2017 onwards is a military focused on modernisation. India needs new equipment to fulfill its modernisation drive. Over the next  three years, India will re-emerge as a key growth market for defence suppliers.”

In 2015, India was at sixth spot among 20 countries in terms of defence budgets. That time India's budget was $46,645 million. In 2016, India jumped up by two spots to fourth position with annual budget of $50,678 million.

The total budget of top 20 countries in 2015 was $13,22,341 million and the global total in the same year was $15,53,612 million. In 2016, the total spent of top 20 countries on defence was $13,38,358 million and the global total was $15,68,440 million.