Four Indian PSUs feature in world’s top 100 arms producers: SIPRI Report

The recently released rankings by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) have placed four Indian Public Sector Undertakings among world’s top 100 arms producers. These companies are as follows:

1. Indian Ordnance Factories (37^th Rank)
2. Hindustan Aeronautics (38^th Rank)
3. Bharat Electronics (64^th Rank)
4. Bharat Dynamics (94^th rank)

Key Facts

This was for the first time that four Indian companies have ranked in top 100 arms producers companies of world. These four companies have sold arms worth USD 7.52 Billion in 2017.

About SIPRI

Established in 1966, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is a Swedish think tank dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. SIPRI provides data, analysis and recommendations, based on open sources, to policymakers, researchers, media and the interested public.

India’s share in Global Arms Sale

India’s current share in total global arms sales stands at less than 2%. This indicates that India has been a weak player in international markets. Successive government have tried to turn India into a global defence manufacturing hub and take multiple policy steps to involve private sector in defense production. However, most of such measures have been on papers only till now.

World’s top arms producers

The global arms market is dominated by US companies which have a whopping 57% of the market share, followed by Russia (9.5%), United Kingdom (9%) and France (5.3%). As of 2017, Lockheed Martin is world’s largest arms with arms sales of $ 44.9 billion. Boeing is the second largest arms producer company in the world.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2018