On 21 April 1975, Godhra MP and founding member of Swatantra Party spoke in the Lok Sabha during a debate on defence expenditure and purchase of arms. 'We have been, especially since the last war with Pakistan, shopping round the world.'
A recent report by SIPRI revealed that while India remains the largest importers of arms, Russia’s contribution to its imports declined between 2018-2022 and French exports increased.
At the end of May, US announced military assistance worth $4.6 billion for Ukraine, UK has announced military aid worth £1.3 billion, while EU has declared €2 billion in military support.
SIPRI's 2021 Trends in International Arms Transfers report says India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Australia, and China were world's top 5 arms importers in 2017-21 period.
Procurement procedures in the armed forces are near perfect. So if sub-standard equipment pass through, it's either because the leadership is corrupt or it is incompetent.
India is now looking at acquiring 6 armed drones from the US instead of the planned mix of 30 armed and non-armed drones. It is also in talks with Israel.
Research paper, however, finds lowest indebtedness level among Muslims at 12.3% & highest among Hindus at 14.9%. Overall national financial inclusion level at 87.2%, indebtedness at 14.7%.
Fresh details of operation conducted by IAF, Army have come out in gazette notification giving citations of those who were awarded Vir Chakra for their bravery.
On 21 Oct, a buzz went up that the govt had released full list of gallantry award recipients along with Op Sindoor citations. I put an AI caddy on the job. It took me into a never-ending rabbit hole.
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