India was third highest military spender in 2021

New Delhi, July 30: India's military spending for the year 2021 was ranked as the third highest in the world, the government said citing data collated by Stockholm-based defence think-tank SIPRI.

"This (defence) ministry does not maintain expenditure data of other countries," Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said, replying to a question in Lok Sabha.

"However, as per data available on Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's (SIPRI) website, India's military spending for the year 2021 is ranked as third highest in the world," he said.

Bhatt was asked whether India's military spending is ranked third highest globally.

According to the details provided by Bhatt, citing data from SIPRI, the US ranked first with the expenditure of USD 800,672.20 million, followed by China's USD 293,351.90 million while the figure for India was USD 76,598.00 million.

Asked whether more than 50 per cent of defence equipment has been imported from 2017 to 2021, he said "no".

"During 2017-21, the percentage of foreign procurement (both revenue and capital) made for the purchase of stores/ defence equipment has been in the range of 33.97 per cent to 41.60 per cent," he said.

To a separate question, Bhatt said coastal monitoring and surveillance is being carried out on a real-time basis by the Indian Coast Guard around the country's coastline through a "chain of static sensors (CSS) consisting of 46 radar stations." He said the infrastructure has been put in place under the Coastal Surveillance Network (CSN).

"Coastal surveillance system through chain of coastal high definition surface warning radars is one of the means through which coastal security is being implemented," he said.

"The radars have been installed since 2011 and there is no known harmful effect on the environment," he added.