New Delhi, April 25 -- With military expenditure worth $83.6 billion in 2023, India was the fourth largest spender globally in 2023, the latest report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) states. This was a result of growing personnel and operations costs that comprised about 80 per cent of the total military budget, the report said.

The latest data showed that the United States, China and Russia remained the top three military spenders globally followed by India and Saudi Arabia. According to the report, Indian spending was up by 4.2 per cent from 2022 and by 44 per cent from 2014. It said the growth in spending is because of rising personnel and operations costs, and this aligns with the government's priority to ...