Atmanirbhar Bharat: India's import of arms dip by 33 per cent, says SIPRI

The import of weapons is believed to have decreased due to the promotion of domestic defense production as part of the Central Government's Self-Reliant India(Atmanirbhar Bharat) Campaign.

Yogita S.
Published on: 16 March 2021 4:03 AM GMT
Atmanirbhar Bharat: Indias import of arms dip by 33 per cent, says SIPRI
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Rafale deal

New Delhi: There has been a 33 per cent decrease in arms imports from abroad during 2011–15 and 2016–20 in India. The countries most affected by this have been Russia and then the US. This has been revealed by the report of Sipri, the defense think tank based in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.

The import of weapons is believed to have decreased due to the promotion of domestic defense production as part of the Central Government's Self-Reliant India(Atmanirbhar Bharat) Campaign.

Decrease in import of arms:

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report, in the last five years, India has purchased the most weapons from Russia. However, this import of weapons has come down by about 53 per cent. India is now buying only 49 per cent of weapons from Russia, instead of the earlier 70 per cent. In this case, India has also given a big shock to America. The United States was the second largest arms exporter in India between 2011-2015, but the US has moved up to the fourth position during 2016-2020.

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India's import of arms from the US has come down by 46 per cent. From 2016 to 2020, Israel was the second and France the third largest arms suppliers. Between 2016 and 2020, India's arms imports from France increased by 709 percent.

During the same period, India had signed an agreement for the purchase of Rafale fighter jets, which led to such an increase in the import of arms from France. The purchase of Rafale aircraft and the missiles in it is half of India's total imports. At the same time, India's arms imports with Israel have increased by 82 percent.

1.99 lakh crore approved for Defense sector:

In response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Defense Shripad Naik said, 112 proposals worth Rs 1.99 lakh crore have been approved from December 2018-19 to 2020-21. Under this, capital procurement has to be done in various categories, so that domestic defense manufacturing can be promoted. The central government has set a turnover target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore by 2025 for domestic defense manufacturing.

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Yogita S.

Yogita S.

Media Graduate, News Editor and PR Enthusiast.

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