Congress denies 'wrongdoing' in defence deal with IsraelPress Trust of India - 21 hours ago New Delhi, Mar 27 (PTI) Stung by allegations that its government paid kickbacks in an air defence missile deal with Israel, the Congress today defended the ... India signs 1.4 US million air defence deal with Israel Thaindian.com 'India told us to keep deal secret' Daily News & Analysis India, Israel ink $1.4 bn anti-missile system deal Hindustan Times Poll campaigns fuel defence deals?Times of India - 17 hours ago NEW DELHI: There is something about mega defence deals and the general elections. If the previous NDA regime inked a flurry of arms deals in the run-up to ... You are footing arms deal bribesDaily News & Analysis - 17 hours ago A controversial Israeli arms agent has been playing a crucial role in swinging several defence deals in India. David Kolitz, his partner Israel Yaniv, ... CPI(M) demands probe into Israeli missile dealHindu - 2 hours ago New Delhi (PTI): Criticising the UPA government for awarding a Rs 10000-crore air defence missile deal to an Israeli company under probe in India, ... Congress rubbishes CBI probe demand into Israeli missile deal Press Trust of India India, Israel sign USD 1.4 billion deal on air defence systemPress Trust of India - Mar 27, 2009 Jerusalem, Mar 27 (PTI) India has signed its biggest defence deal with Israel for the purchase of a state-of-the- art air defence system at a whopping cost ... Congress praises Manmohan's stewardshipTimes of India - 17 hours ago Responding to another question, he dismissed reports of a scam involving India's defence deal with Israel claiming defence minister AK Antony was known for ... Jobs joy at Vickers as BAE Systems secure £300m defence dealJournal Live - Mar 27, 2009 The deal was last night hailed as a vote of confidence in the region’s engineering skills. Engineers on Tyneside will build the army’s latest armoured ... Army contract brings good news to region Northern Echo Army chief to visit FrancePress Trust of India - 2 hours ago During the visit, Gen Kapoor will interact with senior military and civilian officials and discuss various contemporary defence issues, an Army spokesperson ... Army Chief’s visit to France Press Information Bureau (press release) Alexander Downer joins LatelineABC Online - 19 hours ago To share his views on Mr Rudd's travels and his Defence Minister's travails, Mr Downer joins me now from Melbourne. Alexander Downer, good to have you with ... Labor suffers from China syndrome The Australian Honourable members, please fasten your seat belts Sydney Morning Herald Defence Minister admits to mistake ABC Online Israel deal has Left fumingDaily News & Analysis - 18 hours ago Defence minister AK Antony will have to do a lot of fire-fighting in his home state Kerala, where the ruling Left Democratic Front has trained its guns on ... |
Indian scientists told to create a curry fit for an astronautTimes Online - Mar 26, 2009 As part of India’s race to send a man into space by 2015, a team of military scientists has been set a particularly tricky mission: to develop a curry fit ... Alexander Downer joins LatelineABC Online - 19 hours ago To share his views on Mr Rudd's travels and his Defence Minister's travails, Mr Downer joins me now from Melbourne. Alexander Downer, good to have you with ... Project 17-A: French shipyard DCNS set to play roleBusiness Standard - 20 hours ago Major global warship-makers are carefully watching the Indian Navy’s Project 17-A, potentially India’s biggest-ever naval purchase, a Rs 17000 crore plan to ... India lists issues for nuclear deal talks with USBusiness Standard - Mar 24, 2009 Another problem before the US is its access to India’s booming energy and defence industries. Saran said India’s defence spending on “medium and long-term ... A roundup of news, schedules, and key stories from CBS News ...CBS News - Mar 27, 2009 Among other things, officials said he planned to recast the Afghan war as a regional issue involving not only Pakistan but also India, Russia, China, ... Obama to set benchmarks in fight against militants International Herald Tribune Obama plans troop surge in Afghanistan Coshocton Tribune New war strategy requires outside help ReporterNews.com India says lift ban on dual use items; dangles $270 bn businessEconomic Times - Mar 23, 2009 If India maintains its current level of defence spending to achieve its medium and long-term goals of force upgradation, then a growing part of the expected ... India tells US to work for mutually acceptable end user clause Press Trust of India 'Defence safe from global recession'Sify - Mar 20, 2009 Responding to a question about the purchase of 80 medium-lift helicopters from Russia, Nayyar said: "India would start receiving the Mi-17V-5s from June ... American embraceFrontline - Mar 24, 2009 By the end of the UPA government’s term, Israel had emerged as the top weapons supplier to India, replacing Russia. Many multi-billion-dollar defence and ... Pentagon questions growing Chinese military powerWSLS.com - Mar 25, 2009 The report estimated 2008 China’s military-related spending at between $105 billion to $150 billion, roughly double that of a decade ago. ... Liberals want more defense spending left behindThe Hill - Mar 25, 2009 By Alexander Bolton President Obama is facing mounting pressure from his party’s left flank to cut defense spending so more money can be spent on social ... |
10 Per cent Hike In Indian Defence Budget for 2008-09
India on Friday jacked up defence spending by 10 percent to $26.4 billion, the steepest hike since partition of the subcontinent to fund a mammoth modernisation programme. Finance Minister P.Chidambaram boosted expenditure for the fiscal year ending March 2009 from the previous allocation of $24 billion, saying security was of paramount importance.
India plans to spend at least $30 billion until 2012 to modernise the military with an immediate purchase of 126 war jets costing $12 billion followed by ships, submarines, artillery and other hardware in coming years. Weapons: Chidambaram set aside $12 billion for arms purchases during the current fiscal year after New Delhi promised the armed forces will not face funds shortages in the drive to upgrade material.
“Any further amount that is needed for the defence forces, especially for capital expenditure, will be provided,” he told parliament. The 1.23-million-strong army, the world’s fourth largest, received $9 billion to help modernize mechanized divisions, artillery and air defence units. Chidambaram also set aside millions of dollars in addition to the annual defence outlay to set up institutions and schools for families of servicemen and women. He committed $1.85 billion to the navy which is shopping for six submarines in addition to the six it bought last year from Armaris and European defence firm MBDA for $3 billion.
The 137-ship navy is also in advanced negotiations to buy eight long-range reconnaissance planes from either US-based Boeing or the European consortium EADS for $2 billion, besides building a nuclear-powered submarine. Chidambaram allotted $2.71 billion for the airforce which is still flying ageing Russian MiG jets. The remaining funds were marked for research development and ordnance factories which are in the process of deploying India’s guided and ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. Defence Minister AK Antony hailed the budget. “The modernization drive would continue full steam,” he said.
“The armed forces had been hit by a resource crunch in the 90s and now time has come to equip them with latest weapons and systems to ensure that country’s borders are safe. “The modernization would be across the board in all three services — army, navy and air force — as well as in country's strategic programmes like missiles,” he told reporters. However, senior commanders privately said the funds might not suffice to meet the long-term modernization programme. “The 10 percent increase will barely offset our nearly five percent inflation rate and 40 percent funds will go for the upkeep of assets and our existing manpower,” a senior infantry commander said.
The unprecedented increase was likely to be closely monitored in Pakistan which has accused nuclear rival India of sparking an arms race by spending almost three percent of GDP on its million-plus military forces. For the current fiscal year which ends March 31, India increased defence spending by 7.8 percent. Also, India for the first time set aside $125 million to be spent on the “urgent needs of development of border areas” such as Arunachal Pradesh state, which is claimed in full by communist China.
http://www.india-defence.com/reports-3759
Dated 2/3/2008
Israel has emerged as one of the largest exporter of arms to India! While, US President Barack Obama on Friday affirmed a tripling of US economic aid to Pakistan to $ 1.5 billion annually over the next five years, calling it a ''down payment'' for America’s future security even though he unambiguously accused the country of being a safe haven for al-Qaida and its leadership.
We have to continue the UNDECLARED War against EACH OTHER in this divided Bleeding Geopolitics to FEED the GREEDY MONEY MACHINE and US Interests. it is PITY to note that INDIAN Marxists as well Maoists afford to skip the HISTORY of FASCIST IMPERIALIST Alliance against Communist International for which USA, United Kingdom and FRANCE folowed APPEASEMENT Policy to give the SPACE for HITLER assisted well by Mussolini and general TOJO. In present day India, the FASCIST IMPERIALIST Cooperation is very much clear since the Parliamentary NUKE OPERA in which NDA and UPA joined together to stop Mayawati, the Projected Third Front Prime Minister of the Third Front!
Now VARUN Gandhi, Narendra MODI and MAYA KODNANI appear on the STAGE of the FASCIST IMPERIALIST ALLIANCE and the People`s resistance or simply mobilisation or Public OPINION happen to be ABSENT simply because the LEFT including the MARXISTS as well as the MAOISTS are also the INTEGRAL part of the BRAHAMINICAL HEGEMONY of MANUSMRITI APARTHEID rule in India. POST MODERN ANTI COMINTERN has no RESISTANCE whatsoever in INDIA! How could it be while the Marxists seek SALVATION on the HIGHWAY of GLOBALISTION and CAPITALIST DEVELOPMENT. While a MARXIST CHIEF MINISTER turns into a BRAND only and another is EXCOMMUNICATED as he is reluctant enough to stick to the COMMUNIST IDEOLOGY!
US MILITARY presence in IRAQ continues despite the CHANGE in UNITED Staes Of AMERICA. Strategic Realliance in US ISRAEL lead is further developed as IRAN, CHINA and INDIA find place in NEW AFPAK policy shift in WASHINGTON. Israel looks to Indo-US deal to expand nuke ties while greatest ever ARMS DEAL between India and US has been already signed!Arms sales form the backbone of the Israeli economy. The nuclear deal in place, India is now turning into a strong and vocal member of the global non-proliferation and disarmament brigade,which is intended to blunt a "non-pro" Obama administration's instinctive criticisms against India. Shyam Saran, PM's special envoy on the nuclear deal, on Tuesday outlined a series of steps on everything from CTBT to fuel banks, peaceful utilization of outer space and FMCT, in a speech at Brookings Institution, an Obama-friendly think tank in Washington. The Indian initiative comes as a pre-emptive move to a US administration that is seen to be a lot more unbending in nuclear matters than the Bush administration. Besides, Democrats have traditionally emphasized the non-proliferation aspect of nuclear cooperation in comparison to the energy and economical aspects which the Bushies focused on.
During my speaking tour of Maharashtra in january-February this year, I had to speak and interact on indian Economy with different groups including Economists and TRADE UNION and social activists. We discussed Balance of Payment crisis, Borrowing and interests as well as OIL economy, energy Crunch and DEFENCE BUDGET. It is quite interesting that UPA govt at the CENTRE during 1997-98 finalised the DISINVESTMENT POLICY and STRATEGY and the list of the PSUs to be disinvested including ONGC, SBI, LIC, Coal India, SAIL, RAILWAY and POST on the basis of the report of the PRIME MINISTERS council headed by GP Goenka followed by Disinvestment Commissions! But the Policy makers including the Marxists nowhere mentioned OIL ECONOMY, Energy Crisis and the DEFENCE EXPENDITURE. Disinvestment continues but DEFENCE BUDGET also continue to RISE and with INDO US NUKE Deal and strategic Realliance, the FLOOD Gates of GLOBAL ZIONIST ARMS market are Wide OPEN!
We simply forgot the background of Second World war and Global recession in 1929 which ORIGINATED from VERSAILLES Treaty. Unted states WEAPON Industry had to be paid back with GERMAN REPARATIONS and to enable GERMANY the UNITED STATES of AMERICA loaned GERMANY! The whole SET UP caused the GREAT RECESSION.
Union Budget 2008-09 has allocated Rs. 105,600 crores for India’s Defence. Crossing the one lakh barrier for the first time, and accounting for nearly 14.1 per cent of total central government expenditure, the Defence Budget looks quite impressive (see Box). But when seen in the context of India’s expanding interests, this allocation remains as moderate as ever. Moreover, an in-depth analysis reveals problems in defence and budgetary management, none of which show signs of abating.For fiscal year 2008-09, India’s defence allocation has increased by 10 per cent over the previous year’s allocation of Rs. 96, 000 crores, and by little over 14 per cent compared to last year’s revised allocation of Rs. 92,500 cores. In the last five years, the defence budget has increased by nearly 37 per cent from Rs. 77,000 crores in 2004-05, which represents over 8 per cent growth per annum (Figure-1). Notwithstanding the current allocation and growth of the defence budget over the years, the question remains whether India’s defence spending is compatible with its economic and security interests.
False RECESSION is the lame EXCUSE to allocate SOPs to INDIA INCs and FIIs, Corporates and MNCs while GOVERNMENT of INDIA is ENGAGED with UNPRECEDENTED ARMAMENT with doubtable DEFENCE deals with USA, ISRAEL and RUSSIA and other WESTERN COUNTRIES which have killed INDIGENOUS Production system wyith ETHNIC CLEANSING of Productive forces turning the NATION into an INFINITE KILLING FIELD and capturing all the NATURAL RESOURCES for a SALE OUT!
Bengal leader MAMTA Bannerjee protests Indiscriminate land Acquisition and DISINVESTMENT so she is described LEFTIST. Mamata rightly told STAR ANAND that TATAS depend on Lay OFF in the ORIGINAL Jamshedpur plant. THE RECESSION and stakes World wide including in CHORUS and AIG, slump in FREEsenSExcould never allow TATAS to launch NANO on scheduled times! TATAS shifted NANO Project strategically to GUJARAT and blamed her!
Four days after the launch of the Nano in Mumbai, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday alleged that the event was timed with the Lok Sabha elections in mind and was a conspiracy against her.
Participating in an interactive programme aired by a private television news channel, Banerjee said: "The launch of the Nano was timed keeping in view the approaching Lok Sabha polls. It was motivated. It is a conspiracy against me.
"Where is the factory? The car is also not ready. Some parts of cars were bought from malls to make the model cars," she alleged in the programme broadcast by a local news channel.
Banerjee claimed that Tata Motors had fled from Singur not because of her party's agitation against land acquisition, but because of the global meltdown.
The Trinamool supremo said Tatas' purchase of Corus had brought down the share prices of the company. "Their plants in Jamshedpur are also not running through the week."
Responding to Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata's greeting 'good afternoon' during the March 23 Nano launch in Mumbai, Banerjee said: "He has his allegiance for a particular political party (CPM). So I will wish him good night. We will usher in a new and good morning."
Tata Motors wound up its Singur plant, which was originally scheduled to roll out the Nano, last October, following sustained protests by the Trinamool-led farmers demanding return of 400 of the 997.11 acres acquired for the project. The agitators alleged that the 400 acres were forcibly taken by the government from farmers unwilling to part with their land.
India INC, the DESI ILLUMINITI decides everything sapred by WASHINGTON and TEL AVIV Diactates!
Thus, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday asked India's top industrialists to be sensitive to the adverse impact of the current economic crisis on the weaker sections of the society and sought their help in meeting the challenges.
"I have great faith and confidence in India's entrepreneurs and particularly in the wisdom and experiences of captains of industry assembled here today to meet the challenges confronting our economy," he told a meeting with them at his official residence here.
"We need to be particularly sensitive to the impact of slowdown on the weakest in the organised as well as unorganised sectors. We must meet the challenge of job losses caused by the slowdown," the prime minister added.
Manmohan Singh had invited some 25 leading industrialists to hear their views on some of the key issues concerning the domestic and global economy and to help frame India's position ahead of his participation at the G20 summit in London April 2.
The meeting was attended, among others, by Ratan Tata, K.V. Kamath, Sunil Mittal, Rahul Bajaj, Sashi Ruia, Harsh Pati Singhania, Sajjan Jindal, R.P Goenka, Baba Kalyani, Tarun Das, Amit Mitra and Kumar Mangalam Birla.
Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Reserve Bank of India Governor D. Subbarao and Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar were also present at the meeting that lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours, official sources said.
In his opening remarks, the prime minister said the challenges confronting the Indian economy can be understood and met only if all stake-holders supported each other with confidence, and with concern for the welfare of all.
The participants at Saturday's meeting said that the main concern expressed unanimously by India Inc was to do away -with high interest rates despite the sharp fall in inflation rates - and the prime minister agreed.
"With ample liquidity and low inflation, there is scope, perhaps, for a further moderation in interest rates," Manmohan Singh said. "Domestic credit flow for productive needs has to definitely be maintained at reasonable cost."
He said there was hope yet for revival, while pointing out that there were signs of improvement in some core industries like cement and steel.
"The rural demand for goods and services appears quite robust and the outlook in the agricultural sector gives room for optimism."
The prime minister, who will leave for London March 31, said there were great expectations from the world leaders to get crucial inputs from India on ways to tackle one of the worst crises in decades.
"The world today looks at India with respect and hope - respect for our calibrated reforms which have resulted in growth with justice and hope that India would be an engine of growth for the world economy," he said.
"I am confident we will all work together to fulfil these expectations, and secure the growth essential for our people."
Both the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) presented an agenda paper to the prime minister.
The industrialists also said that in times such as these, elections should not come in the way of crucial economic policy decisions and that the government must seek the Election Commission's permission in this regard.
They also said that India should use its pre-eminent position at the G20 summit to ensure that rich nations did not raise non-trade barriers.
"Protectionist tendencies, if not curbed, could be counterproductive in the long run and thus needs to be arrested before gaining ground, for demand generation," said Assocham president Sajjan Jindal.
Meanwhile,Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomes US President Barack Obama's new plan to fight al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in his country. In a press conference in Kabul, President Karzai said Saturday that the new US strategy was "better" than expected as it introduced solutions for the worsening conflict in the war-torn country.
"This is better than we were expecting as a matter of fact. We back it," Karzai said, a day after President Obama redefined the mission in Afghanistan.
Obama on Friday said the US was not in Afghanistan to "control that country or dictate its future" but to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda."
The US administration gives the green light to the $2.1-billion sale of eight Boeing Co P-8I long-range Maritime patrol planes to India. The sale is considered the largest US arms transfer to India to date. The US State Department has announced to the Congress that it would issue Boeing an authorization allowing the completion of the contract with India.
The US State Department has mentioned "political, military, economic, human rights and arms-control" factors as those behind the decision.
Boeing's P-8I contract includes spare parts, training and logistical services through 2019, the US State Department said.
The Indian navy is Boeing's first international customer for the P-8, which is a modification of Boeing's commercial 737 airframe.
The deal exceeds the 2008 one-billion-dollar contract for the supply of six Lockheed Martin C-130 transport aircraft to India.
Russia and India declared on 16 th NOV. 2005 that they have reached an agreement, according to which Russia will sell India 10 billion dollars worth of weapons. There are no specific details yet about dates or the kinds of weapons; however this is the largest military contract in Russian history. Some analysts say that Russia might not have enough money in the budget to manufacture that amount of “goods”.
India is discussing the possibility of developing the new 5th generation military jet with Russia, after which both countries will have the construction information. Russia hasn't made up its mind yet, because on one hand Russian scientists and engineers like to keep the secrets in the country, but on the other hand – such research and development may cost more than 20 billion dollars, and Russia doesn’t have that much money for the project.
India is on the verge of finalising a counter-terror collaboration deal with Israel in what will mark yet another step-up in the burgeoning bilateral ties. Times of India reported on 12 march,2004:
An Israeli security team will soon visit India to train the security forces and intelligence teams for anti-insurgency operations in Kashmir. The deal will also include an agreement on intelligence sharing between the two countries.
To work out the nitty-gritty of this exchange programme, director, Intelligence Bureau, K P Singh, is in Tel Aviv now. He is scheduled to hold meetings with the Israeli authorities including their super spy, Mossad director, Meir Dagan, sources said.
India had shunned contact with Israel during the Cold War era. The taboo was, however, breached by the Narasimha Rao government and the ties have since soared, especially during the tenure of the NDA government which has strengthened the ties, brushing aside fears that this could alienate Islamic countries.
The highmark of the feature is a fast-growing partnership in the field of security with New Delhi keen to benefit from Israel’s experience in counter-terrorism, as well as procure high-tech weaponry being developed by Israeli concerns.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/555313.cms
Since NDA regime INDO ISRAEL relations developed and touched the peak during NDA Tenure supported by Indian Marxists until INDO US NUKE DEAL was AUTO OPERATIOLISED and mind you, the NUKE DEAL enhanced the VITAL STATCS of the STRATEGIC REALIACE in US ISRAEL LEAD! Thus, INDIAN OCEAN WAR ZONE has a key role for ISRAEL.
There are nearly 150 defence firms inIsrael, with combined revenues estimated at US $3.5 billion. The three largest armsmanufacturing groups in Israel are the government-owned Israeli Arms Industry (IAI), IsraelMilitary Industries (IMI) and the Rafael Arms Development Authority, all of which producea wide range of conventional arms and advanced defence electronics. In addition, there areprivately owned weapons manufacturing companies like Elbit Systems and the TadiranGroup. The Israeli arms industry employs close to 60,000 people. Israel's defence exports arecoordinated and regulated through SIBAT --- the Foreign Defence Assistance and DefenceExport Organization --- which is run by the Ministry of Defence. SIBAT's tasks include
licensing all defence exports, as well as marketing products developed for the Israel Defence
Force (IDF), that is the Israeli military, from electronic components to missile boats and tanks.
The commander of ground forces in Iraq has said that US troops may extend their stay in the Iraqi cities of Baquba and Mosul beyond the June 2009 deadline.A senior Al Qaeda leader has voluntarily returned home in Saudi Arabia and surrendered himself to the authorities, a media report said.Sudan President Omar Hassan al-Bashir defied an international arrest warrant by travelling to Libya on Thursday for talks with leader Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's government said.Hamas resumed indirect negotiations with Israel on Wednesday aimed at exchanging an Israeli soldier held by the group for Palestinians jailed by Israel, Hamas official Ali Barakeh said.Al-Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri Tuesday demanded Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir 'repent' for kicking the terrorist group's leaders out of Sudan and called on the Sudanese people to 'prepare for a guerrilla war against the West'.
The Israeli Labour Party voted Tuesday to join prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, Israel's Channel 1 television reported. During its 23-day offensive in the Gaza Strip, Israel had committed numerous war crimes by using Palestinian children as human shields and targeting medics and hospitals, The Guardian has claimed.
Extending its "fullest support" to the goal of countering terrorist and narco-threats emanating from Afghanistan, India has said the resurgence of the Taliban in the war-ravaged country has to be "frontally acknowledged and addressed". Prime Minister's special envoy S K Lambah's comments here came on a day on which US President Barack Obama sought global cooperation in the war against terror in Afghanistan, saying "the world cannot afford the price" of a Taliban win there.
"The resurgence of the Taliban, the security situation in the southern and eastern provinces, the growing security difficulties in the north and the western provinces are factors far too corrosive not to be frontally acknowledged and addressed," Lambah said at an international conference on Afghanistan sponsored by Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. He backed SCO rotating-president Russia-hosted meet's goal of countering terrorist and narco-threats to the region emanating from the war-torn South Asian nation, while noting that Afghan government has made significant achievements.
"This is a goal to which India offers its fullest support and which in fact is an essential building block for the security and stability of the entire region," Lambah declared.
Cutting across party lines, US lawmakers have commended President Barack Obama for his "bold" comprehensive strategy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, saying he has rightly brought the focus back on the two countries -- the centre of war against terrorism. Both Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives were quick to welcome the new policy, unveiled by Obama yesterday when he vowed to "disrupt, defeat and dismantle" terrorists and their safe havens in the region.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, applauded Obama for adopting a regional approach in his policy while her party colleague and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said a "focused approach" will help in successfully defeating the al-Qaeda and thus making the US safe. While welcoming the new policy, Senator John McCain, who was the Republican Presidential candidate in the November 4 polls, said this is just the first step.
Bollywood actor Katrina Kaif on Friday walked the ramp dressed as Barbie doll at the Lakme Fashion Week in showbiz capital Mumbai.
Socialite heiress Paris Hilton was in tears as she watched her boyfriend Doug Reinhardt being bashed up in a Miami club! Welsh singer-songwriter Duffy has vowed that she will never endorse another product again, after her TV commercial for Diet Coke was criticised by U.K. campaigners over road safety fears!
Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan on Thursday graced a fitness product launch by Reebok in Mumbai. Brit singers Keisha Buchanan and Amelle Berrabah were spotted wearing see through tops sans bras as they headed out for what turned to be an eventful night.
China's box office is still recording strong growth despite the global economic downturn, posting increases of 29 percent in January, the chairman of the country's leading state-run movie company says.
Late Brit celebrity Jade Goody's sons will not be attending her funeral, as they may find it very upsetting!
Lights went out at Sydney's famous Opera House and Harbour Bridge on Saturday for Earth Hour 2009, a global event in which landmarks and homes go dark for an hour to highlight the threat from climate change.Australia first held Earth Hour in 2007 and it went global in 2008, attracting the involvement of 50 million people, organisers say. Environmental group WWF, which started the event, is hoping one billion people will take part this year.
"The primary reason we do it is because we want people to think, even if it is for an hour, what they can do to lower their carbon footprint, and ideally take that beyond the hour," Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley told reporters at Sydney's Bondi Beach.
Among the more than 80 countries taking part this year are newcomers like industrial powerhouse China and Asian industrial hub Singapore.
A British Police scheme aimed at spotting children vulnerable to Islamic radicalisation has identified 200 school children, including some as young as 13 years, as potential terrorists.
Mirek Topolanek, the Czech Republic's premier, has conceded that his ill-timed remark suggesting that the US measures to battle the global economic crisis would lead to 'a road to hell' were inspired by heavy metal band AC/DC.
The head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency said he fears up to 3,000 violent protesters may clash with authorities at the NATO summit in France and Germany next week.
The famous painting on the Berlin Wall, which depicted the kiss between East German leader Erich Honecker and his Soviet counterpart Leonid Brezhnev, has been erased as a part of a clean-up of the surviving sections of the wall.Ask a citizen of the former Communist world what they longed for most before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the answer may well surprise you: not 'Capitalism' but 'Coca-Cola'.Russia will create by 2020 a group of forces to protect its interests in the Arctic but does not plan to militarise the region, a spokesman for the Russian Security Council said Friday.
Viewing Pakistan as the root of the security problem in the region, the United States has clearly shifted the focus of its war on terrorism to Pakistan.US will send an additional 4000 troops to fight Taliban in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama today said as he announced a slew of measures to enable.Recognising India as a key stakeholder in the war against terrorism, President Barack Obama proposes to include New Delhi as well as Iran in a new contact group on Pakistan and Afghanistan.A key element of US President Barack Obama's new 'Af-Pak' strategy is to lessen India-Pakistan tensions and recast the Afghanistan war as a regional issue that also involves India, Russia, China and Iran among others.Turning the heat on Pakistan, President Barack Obama today bluntly told the Islamic nation that a "blank cheque" cannot be given if it did not show commitment!Warning that Al Qaeda was planning attacks on the US from its safe haven in Pakistan, President Barack Obama Friday unveiled a new strategy to destroy the terrorist outfit.Unveiling his new Afghan-Pak strategy, President Barack Obama today vowed to work more resolutely to "disrupt, defeat and dismantle" extremists.
Pakistan Friday promised to cooperate with the US after President Barack Obama announced a new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, news agencies reported.Pakistan is seeking full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a regional security group, the country's foreign minister told an international conference in Moscow Friday.
On the other hand, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned that he will not surrender the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands ahead of talks with Argentinean premier Cristina Kirchner, who was elected with a pledge to regain the islands from British occupation.
The U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday said that Pakistan's Afghan border regions had turned into "the most dangerous place in the world.
Obama pledged a major effort, including through a spike in economic assistance, to bring stability to Pakistan, warning that its Afghan border regions had turned into "the most dangerous place in the world."
Thousands of demonstrators gathered to march through London on Saturday to demand action on poverty, jobs and climate change at the start of a week of protests aimed at the G20 summit in the capital.Trade unions, aid agencies, religious groups and environmentalists have come together under the slogan "Put People First" to urge world leaders meeting on April 2 to discuss the worst economic conditions since the 1930s.The march takes place against the backdrop of a deepening global recession and growing public anger over bankers' pay and the painful fallout from the crisis.
In Britain, unemployment has risen above 2 million, house prices have fallen 11 percent in a year and industrial output has recorded its worst drop since 1981.
"This is going to be a summer of rage for the working class," said protester Bryan Simpson, 20, a clerk from Glasgow. "Working class people are expected to pay the price for the debts of the banks."
While some G20 protesters have adopted slogans such as "Hang a Banker" and "Storm the Banks", organisers of the London march said the event would be peaceful.
Pakistan says that the armed forces differential between it and India had widened which had resulted in New Delhi trying to "find space for a conventional war". In unusual comments at the National Defence University, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said "when seen with the widening force differential between ours and Indian Armed Forces, it explains to us the emboldened posture and her urge, to find space for a conventional war.
" Gilani also highlighted the complex security scenario in the country saying "all of you know that we have been preparing for an external threat all these years. Our internal threat has been evolving beyond our comprehension and has weakened us considerably.
" "History tells us that a weak inner front always tends to invite external aggression," he said in his address to participants yesterday. Gilani also said Pakistan had "no aggressive designs against any country" but would counter any threat to its territorial integrity and sovereignty "with full force".
A major 26/11 type terror attack is 'inevitable' in India as it braces for general elections in April-May even though the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament has been moved to South Africa for security fears, warns a leading US strategic think tank.
Stratfor, which calls itself 'the world leader in global intelligence', said: 'Despite the decisions, the Islamist militant threat to India remains.'
The Indian security apparatus is already bracing for another major attack, Stratfor said.
It said it had 'received indications early on from Indian security sources that the IPL tournament was a prime target for another large-scale Islamist militant operation following the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.'
Shifting the IPL tournament to South Africa gives the Indians more forces to secure the country for the national elections, but this does not necessarily mean that the threat level during this time period has subsided.
The elections still provide Pakistan-based and indigenous Indian militants a good occasion to target politicians, government buildings, and voting booths - to say nothing of the usual soft targets like crowded marketplaces, movie theatres, hotels or religious sites, the think tank said.
Founded by futurologist George Friedman, Stratfor has 'an intelligence network located throughout the world'. Financial magazine Barron's once referred to the private intelligence agency as 'The Shadow CIA'.
It said the Indian intelligence apparatus is thought to have warned the central government of a flood of specific threats against both Indian and foreign cricket players. Warnings of specific threats against the players came from the governments of the states hosting matches, including Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
'Given that these two states respectively are home to the information technology hubs of Hyderabad and Bangalore - both of which have a heavy foreign presence - and are where multinational corporations doing business in India are concentrated, these states are at a particularly high risk of attack,' Stratfor warned.
The decision to sacrifice the IPL tournament 'which did not come easily for New Delhi, has already become politicised,' it noted. But 'it also does not signal an end to the jihadist threat to India.'
India already has an array of militant threats to deal with, ranging from Maoist insurgency to northeastern separatists to Kashmiri Islamists, Stratfor said.
'Given the jihadist insurgency also intensifying along India's western frontier and Pakistan seemingly losing control of its militant proxies, another major Islamist attack in India is inevitable,' it said.
'Regardless of whether the upcoming elections go off without a hitch, this is a reality Indian policymakers and security agencies will face for the foreseeable future,' the think tank said.
The March 3 attack in Lahore, Pakistan, against the Sri Lankan cricket team was a stark warning that the array of Islamist militants in the region have an agenda to internationalise their cause through bold and attention-grabbing attacks, the think tank said.
Though no group claimed responsibility for the Lahore attack, there is ample reason to suspect Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), it said noting: 'Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) created and nurtured the Pakistan-based Islamist militant group to pressure India, but LeT has gradually loosened itself from Islamabad's grip.'
'The Lahore attack bore a number of similarities to the November 2008 Mumbai attack. And given LeT's primary focus on India, the IPL tournament would have made another prime target,' the think tank said. Over 170 people were killed in the terror strike in Mumbai last year.
Pakistan Friday promised to cooperate with the US after President Barack Obama announced a new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, news agencies reported.A group on the social-networking site calling itself "I Heart Jews" garnered more than 2,000 members until the group's name was suddenly changed to "Hitler: Great Modern Man of History".
"It's disgusting. It's despicable," said Facebook user Wendy Erdheim, who had been part of the group.
Other members of the group were similarly shocked. "Is this a joke?" posted one. "Because if it is not I am absolutely appalled."
Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said the name change was no accident. "One would have to say that it's premeditated and that the intent was there from the beginning," FOX News quoted Weitzman, as saying.
"We don't allow groups that are hateful or threatening, for example, and will remove these as quickly as possible when they're reported," a Facebook spokesman said.
He confirmed that this specific group's name had indeed been changed to "Hitler: Great Modern Man of History," but was later changed again to "I Love Jews" and was still on the site.Postings to one of the 10 different "I Love Jews" groups on Facebook clearly referred to the Hitler name change, which appears to have taken place on or around March 18. It seems the group was renamed again Tuesday.
The new US policy for Afghanistan and Pakistan clearly indicates that Washington is more concerned than before about the impending crisis in the region, and wants to root out insurgency from its core by adopting a more 'regional approach'.meanwhile, A constitutional petition has been filed in Sindh High Court challenging the alleged meddling of US diplomats in Pakistan's internal affairs during the political crisis in the country.Meanwhile, Muslim countries have asked Turkey to veto Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the next NATO chief, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said. A US court has ordered Iran to pay $25 million plus interest to the family of an Israeli soldier kidnapped and killed by Hamas 15 years ago.
The toll from the dam break near Jakarta Friday climbed to 77 Saturday as rescuers searched for more than 100 people still missing, Indonesia's disaster relief agency and police said.
"We have no evidence that anyone attending intends to disrupt our plans, break the law or commit any acts of violence," said Glen Tarman, chairman of the organisers.
Britain could soon witness a historic change in the rules of succession to the throne, including giving royal women an equal right to access the throne. While a third of Brit women stay connected with their friends via texting or the Internet, according to a survey.Conducted by Food firm Skinny Cow, the survey revealed that almost one in five females could remain without seeing their best pals for six months.The surveyors questioned 2,124 women in the country, and found that one-fifth of them had more than 100 Facebook friends.
Applauding India's efforts in rebuilding the post-Taliban Afghanistan, the Obama Administration has said it had "actively consulted" New Delhi during the comprehensive review of its Afghan-Pakistan policy. "The US has actively consulted India while developing its strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan," Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher told a group of South Asian reporters here yesterday.
"I think, we had very good consultations with India so far and we hope to work closely with them as we go forward," he said, adding New Delhi has been very positive and active when it comes to Afghanistan. Boucher noted that Richard Holbrooke, the Special US Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, had made a trip to New Delhi and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon had come to Washington during this review process.He also praised India's efforts in the redevelopment of Afghanistan, post-Taliban. "India has been a major donor and has done some very good work in Afghanistan," he said.Replying to a question, Boucher said: "As far as any rivalry between India and Pakistan, I think, quite contrary, this strategy makes us possible for all of us to really deal with the counter-terrorist strategy in the region, which effects India and Pakistan alike."
Meanwhile,China marked its inaugural Serfs' Emancipation Day on Saturday with testimonials by Tibetans on the merits of Communist rule, denunciations of the Dalai Lama and vows to crush any attempts at independence.on the other hand, in Srilanka, The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), an umbrella of pro-LTTE Tamil political parties, boycotted a meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday evening, demanding a suspension of military operations as a precursor to talks.
The United States has made it clear that it would steer clear of the Kashmir issue as it seeks to involve India and other key stakeholders in the region in its new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan is committed to play a main role in stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif has held former President Pervez Musharraf responsible for the current crisis being faced by the nation.Dozens of Taliban militants attacked a NATO transit terminal in northwest Pakistan Saturday with rockets, damaging shipping containers carrying supplies for Western troops in Afghanistan, the police said.
'We don't intend to get involved in that issue,' President Barack Obama's National Security Adviser, Gen James Jones, told reporters Friday when asked if the US expected to address issues between India and Pakistan, particularly Kashmir, as part of its new regional approach.
'But we do intend to help both countries build more trust and confidence so that Pakistan can address the issues that it confronts on the western side of the nation,' he said referring to Pakistan's tribal areas which Obama and other US officials have described as terrorist safe havens.
'But no, Kashmir is a separate issue,' Jones said. 'But we think that the times are so serious that we need to build the trust and confidence in the region, so that nations can do what they need to do in order to defeat the threat' posed by Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorist groups.
'As America does more, we will ask others to join us in doing their part,' he said referring to Obama Administration's plans to 'forge a new contact group for Afghanistan and Pakistan that brings together all who should have a stake in the security of the region.'
The proposed group will include America's NATO allies and other partners, the Central Asian states, Gulf nations, Iran, Russia, India, and China, Jones said noting, 'All have a stake in the promise of lasting peace and security and development in the region.'
Pakistan's political fraternity has tendered a mixed response to the new US policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan.More than anything, its Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's political survival that depends on his much-awaited address to the joint sitting of parliament. His speech could convince the power centers to re-thing over their earlier inclination of applying the Minus One formula. Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and deposed Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif have filed a petition in the Supreme Court pleading to the apex court to make them parties in the disqualification revision petitions' hearings.The political stability in Pakistan depends upon President Asif Ali Zardari giving up his dictatorial presidential powers like power to dismiss parliament, according to PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif. harif asked Zardari to honour a pledge to transfer key powers to his Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leaders differed over the issue, with some terming the revamped strategy as a positive step, while others dubbing the Obama Administration's decision as a 'veiled threat.'
"The language and tone of Obama's speech was positive and different from the policy of his predecessor, George W Bush," The Daily Times quoted PML-Q Secretary General Mushahid Hussain Syed, as saying.
PML-Nawaz Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq said there would not be any major shift in the US policy, and that the United States must consult the political leadership of Pakistan before executing any new policy.
The Awami National Party (ANP) Information Secretary Zahid Khan,while welcoming the new strategy, said that Pakistan must analyze why the international community has been blaming it for breeding terrorists on its soil and funding terror infrastructure.
The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) expressed its discontent over the US' Af-Pak strategy, saying it is a continuation of Washington's wrong policies.
Couples wondering if their true love is heading for a lifetime of happiness have been provided with a mathematical test to find out if they are a match made in heaven. Although, people say there's no simple formula for a long-lasting relationship, boffins claim to have come up with a mathematical model based on a 15-minute conversation between a couple.
In a new take on Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats, US President Barack Obama has reached out to online followers in a bid to rally an anxious country in support of his solutions to the economic crisis.Flanked by a flat-screen TV and backed by a 100-person audience in the White House's East Room, the president answered text questions and those submitted in video format.After the call for questions closed at 9:30 a.m., more than 90,000 people had submitted more than 104,000 questions for the president. The questions largely focused on the economy but spread across several categories. Online users ranked the questions more than 3.6 million times, according to WhiteHouse.gov.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US leader Barack Obama will make joint declarations about bilateral ties and their nuclear weapons stockpile next week, Kremlin said today. Amid hopes of warming relations the two leaders are to hold their maiden meeting on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in London on April 1.Medvedev and Obama are to issue two joint declarations on bilateral relations and for renewing a key Cold War disarmament pact, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), according to a top Kremlin aide. "We will have two presidential statements - on Russian-US relations in general, but also on START. The texts are shaping up nicely and should become the starting point for our future work," Kremlin foreign policy aide Sergei Prikhodko told reporters ahead of the meeting of the two leaders on the sidelines of the G-20 Financial Summit.
Love surely hurts - in fact you really can die from a broken heart, say a new research, which has shed light on "broken heart syndrome".
The condition, known medically as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, was first described by Japanese researchers in the early 1990s. However, it is still a mystery to many in the medical community.
Symptoms typically mimic a heart attack and tend to follow exposure to an intense physical or emotional event. Experts believe these symptoms may be brought on by the heart's reaction to a surge of stress hormones, like adrenaline, causing a part of the heart to temporarily weaken or become stunned (cardiomyopathy), although the exact mechanism is unknown.
However, it appears that broken heart syndrome is temporary and completely reversible.
Now, research by The Miriam Hospital may shed some light on the clinical characteristics and outcomes of this relatively rare, life-threatening condition.
In the study, researchers created a registry of 70 patients with the syndrome, known medically as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, who were diagnosed between July 2004 and April 2008. Two-thirds of the patients - almost all post-menopausal women - had experienced a very stressful physical or emotional event just before arriving at the hospital with heart attack-like symptoms.
Although 20 percent were critically ill and required emergency treatment to keep them alive, all patients survived the first 48 hours and experienced a full and complete recovery,
The report is published in the April 1 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.
"It can be difficult for cardiologists and emergency room physicians to diagnose and manage patients with broken heart syndrome.
However, this data will helps us better understand the disease process and could play a major role in developing and tailoring more effective short and long-term treatment strategies," says lead author Richard Regnante, MD, an interventional cardiology fellow at The Miriam Hospital and a teaching fellow in medicine (cardiology) at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
All patients in the Rhode Island Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy Registry arrived at the hospital with heart attack-like symptoms, including chest pain and shortness of breath.
Because of those similarities, patients underwent emergency cardiac catheterization. Approximately 67 percent of patients had been exposed to some sort of physical or emotional distress - such as bad news about a family member, a domestic argument, severe physical illness or a car accident - just before the onset of symptoms.
All were eventually diagnosed with broken heart syndrome during their hospital stay.
Researchers identified a wide spectrum of disease severity among patients in the registry. Six patients presented with cardiogenic shock and three patients experienced sustained ventricular arrhythmias, requiring emergency defibrillation or cardioversion. Overall, the majority of those in the registry were prescribed aspirin, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors and statins during their hospitalization, consistent with treatment protocol for patients with acute coronary syndrome.
imilarly, most patients left the hospital on a cardiac regimen very similar to that prescribed for heart attack patients.
"Although there is much we're still learning about broken heart syndrome, we do know that it is rarely fatal as long as patients are fully supported with medications, respirators and other critical devices in the first 48 hours," says Regnante.
Obama answered seven of the most popular online questions. That included a paraphrase of a question asked by several people online: would legalising marijuana help jumpstart the economy?
The president grinned through his answer: 'I don't' know what this says about the online audience,' he maintained, adding: 'The answer is, 'No,' I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.'
Other questions - some of which came from the live audience - focused primarily on health care, job loss, mortgage payments and energy.
The web service was hosted by Google, but the White House said it will protect user information in accordance with its own privacy guidelines.
Questions asked on the site were made public immediately, the White House said. Users could flag questions they deemed inappropriate.
Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Varun Gandhi has been arrested and sent to judicial custody till Monday after he moved a surrender plea in Pilibhit court, where a case has been filed against him for his infamous hate speech.The court sentence came shortly after Varun,addressing the media outside the court,said that he was ready to go to jail for the people of Uttar Pradesh and the nation.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today reviewed the current economic situation with top industry leaders and sought their views on India's stand at the G-20 summit in London for a way out of the global crisis. Singh would be among the 20 leaders, representing world's most influential developed and developing economies at the summit on April 2.
Corporate honchos participating in the deliberations included Tata group head Ratan Tata, Aditya Birla group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, ICICI Managing Director and CEO K V Kamath, Essar Group's Shashi Ruia and FICCI President Harsh Pati Singhania. Other prominent businessmen present in the interaction included Assocham President Sajjan Jindal, R P Goenka of the Goenka group, Adi Godrej of the Godrej group, Sunil Kant Munjal of Hero group, Baba Kalyani of Bharat Forge and CII Chief Mentor Tarun Das.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar also attended the meeting.
With the general elections round the corner and allegations of Corporate India being harassed by political parties for funds flying thick and fast, leading lights of industry want an overhaul of the system to bring in transparency to political funding. Things came to a head on Thursday when at the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) annual session, Tata Communications chairman Subodh Bhargava and Bajaj Auto's chairman Rahul Bajaj moaned about black money flowing into elections - something that businessmen want to end.
"We have to address the root of the problem which is not the politicians or industrialists," Dr Amit Mitra, secretary-general Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, told Hindustan Times. "We have to find ways on how to fund elections and how much can an individual donate.
Either we go the US way (of capping corporate contributions) and adopt the latter or we look at the European model and allow elections to be completely funded by government." A third option could be middle path between the two.
Estimates suggest that elections cost between Rs 15,000 crore and Rs 20,000 crore.The big question of course, is, how legislation can make sense in a system where funds are quietly given in off-book payments to politicos.
"As much as 60 per cent of companies are financing political parties in black money," Bajaj said on Thursday. Clean money can make a difference.
Large coporate houses like Tatas and Birlas have separate electoral trusts of their own through which they provide monetary help to political parties. The Tata Electoral Trust does not distribute funds to individual candidates but to registered political parties based on elected members to Lok Sabha.
"There obviously is a case for laying down procedures for funding as it is at the heart of our democracy," said the CEO of a top automobile company who requested anonymity. "While there is pressure on some companies there are others who fund as a means of doing because as they see returns if the supported party comes to power.
India is set to exceed 5.1 per cent GDP growth rate projected by the International Monetary Fund for 2009-10 with certain sectors with strong domestic demand showing signs of recovery. "We are beginning to see the light of the day though there are some worries," Cabinet Secretary KM Chandrasekhar said at the CII annual convention.
He said the contraction of growth in advanced countries would impact the developing countries. He added that the next week's G20 meet in London would be key in the context of global slowdown.
He said the fiscal and monetary measures put together have injected an additional Rs 4,30,000 crore into the system. Sectors like steel, cement and capital goods are showing signs of a turnaround.
He also underlined the need to further soften interest rates and said that especially the private sector banks have not cut interest rates as much as they were expected to despite easing monetary policy. "There is certain stickiness in banks and they have not shown response as we would have liked particularly private sector banks," Chandrasekhar said.
GK Pillai, commerce secretary, pointed out that India's exports in the April to February period stood at $156 billion and is set to touch $170 billion by the end of the fiscal, which is a growth of 3-4 per cent against 27 per cent recorded in 2007-08. Pillai said the effort should be to keep exports at the same level in 2009-10.
Imports at $270 billion, grew by 19 per cent in the current fiscal. "We are against protectionism and it is clear that Indian economy is quite an open one with an import growth of 19 per cent.
"Revenue Secretary PV Bhide said that collection of direct and indirect taxes this fiscal is set to be marginally higher than last year.
Almost 10 percent of the government's tax receipts come from just 41 companies, a survey has revealed. The report was released here Saturday.
The Total Tax Contribution Survey-2008, carried out jointly by the industry lobby Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and auditing major PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), showed that 41 companies contributed 9.7 percent of total government tax receipts.
The surveyors quizzed over 100 companies on various tax issues.
These companies are part of the S&P CNX Nifty and CNX Nifty Junior list on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), and represent 55 percent of the total market capitalisation and 54 percent of the total turnover of the 100 companies identified.
'The impact of taxation in India is manifested by the average amount of total taxes borne and collected by the 41 participating companies, i.e. 16 percent of their turnover,' said PwC executive director Ketan Dalal.
'This is further substantiated by the average Total Tax Rate (TTR) of the participating companies, which is 35.9 percent of profit before all business taxes borne,' he added.
The survey identified a total of 23 business taxes at the central and the state level.
'There is a need to increase the tax base by providing growth incentives for SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and providing investment related incentives to large corporates especially in the current economic environment,' FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra said.
Added Dalal: 'It's important also for companies themselves to be aware of all the taxes that they pay when making commercial decisions in the context of specific transactions, and also regarding their business models in general.'
India should fear China's defence spending
Gurmeet Kanwal
April 29, 2008
While India's defence budget for fiscal 2008-09 has been hiked by only five per cent in real terms to Rs 105,000 crore ($26.4 billion), China's People's Liberation Army has been given a 17.6 per cent increase in planned defence expenditure to Yuan 417.77 billion (58.79 billion). China's defence expenditure has grown at between 12 and 15 per cent annually in real terms over the last decade.
Chinese analysts have sought to pass off the rather steep hike in the defence outlay as having been "caused by the sharp increase in the wages, living expenses and pensions of 2.3 million-strong PLA officers, civilian personnel, soldiers and army retirees". However, the world is sceptical. Defence analysts look at the spectacular anti-satellite test successfully conducted by China in January 2007, recent pictures of an aircraft carrier under construction, the acquisition of SU-30 fighter-bombers and air-to-air refuelling capability, the drive towards acquiring re-entry vehicle technology to equip China's ICBMs with MIRVs [external links] (Multiple Independently-targeted Re-entry Vehicle), and a growing footprint in the South China Sea. They cannot help wonder whether a 21st century arms race has well and truly begun.
In the 2004 White Paper on National Defence, the Chinese government admitted that additional funds were needed for modernisation of the PLA, even though these were classified as 'moderate'. In the 2006 paper this reason has been mentioned only in passing. The allocation of additional funds for force re-structuring and a qualitative increase in the levels of training is emphasised in both White Papers, as also rising inflation as a cause of increased defence expenditure. However, nothing in the White Papers of 2004 and 2006 fully explains the double-digit inflation-adjusted growth in the annual defence expenditure. It is this lack of transparency that has fuelled speculation about an arms race.
On certain parameters, China's defence expenditure compares favourably with the other major powers. China's defence expenditure overtook that of Japan [Images] ($42 billion) and Germany [Images] ($37.5 billion) in 2007, but still lagged behind the United Kingdom ($62.38 billion) and France [Images] ($50.78 billion) whose economies are now much smaller than that of China. It is, of course a small fraction -- less than one-tenth -- of the United States' defence budget of $532.8 billion, not counting the supplementary grants sought by the Pentagon later in the year.
The United States spends almost half (48 per cent) of the total defence budget of the world. China, France, Japan and the United Kingdom each spend four to five per cent.
Complete transparency in defence spending has seldom been a strong point even among countries that take pride in being liberal democracies. Air Commodore Jasjit Singh has written, 'All countries try and protect what they consider to be crucial information about their defence capability for understandable reasons; and defence expenditures are obviously part of that information except where democratic states practice greater transparency as part of their liberal ethos, domestic obligations and public oversight, and well established procedures of accountability..."
Totalitarian regimes like the one in China also lack egalitarian accounting practices and do not have a real grip on all the details of what they actually spend.
David Shambaugh, a well known China analyst, finds China's defence budget the most difficult aspect of the country's armed forces to research. In his view, "Few areas of China's military affairs are more opaque and difficult to research than the revenue/expenditure and budget/finance domains -- but perhaps none is more important to understand." Clearly, China's estimated military expenditure is far higher than the officially published figure. In response to international calls for greater openness, one Chinese military official countered that 'transparency is a tool of the strong to be used against the weak'.
Shambaugh lists several items of expenditure that do not figure in China's list: "China's official defence budget does not appear to include all funds for (1) Chinese-made weapons and equipment production (as distinct from procurement); (2) some RDT&E (Research, Development, Test & Engineering) costs; (3) the paramilitary People's Armed Police; (4) funds for special large weapons purchases from abroad; (5) funds directly allocated to military factories under the control of the GAD and funds for defence industry conversion; and (6) military aid."
Defence analysts Ted Galen Carpenter and Justin Logan point out that greater transparency would be in China's interest: "China needs to recognise that it gains little from opacity in comparison to what it loses? Any respectable observer of the PLA knows about China's growing capabilities. We know about the Sovremenny destroyers, the Sunburn missiles and the Kilo submarines. We know about the Sukhoi 30s and the new F-10 fighter. Large-scale hardware acquisition and development is hard to hide."
China's military aims and modernisation strategy have been enunciated in the Defence White Paper of December 2006. The strategy is "?a three-step development strategy in modernising China's national defence and armed forces, in accordance with the state's overall plan to realise modernisation. The first step is to lay a solid foundation by 2010, the second is to make major progress around 2020, and the third is to basically reach the strategic goal of building informationised armed forces and being capable of winning informationised wars by the mid-21st century."
Compared with China, India's budgetary transparency is indeed noteworthy -- even though many Indian analysts are of the view that the government does not disclose sufficient details in the annually published Defence Services Estimates. Except in the last two years, the annual increase in India's defence budget has barely kept pace with inflation. India's defence budget is less than half of China's officially claimed figure and is between one-fourth and one-third of China's actual defence expenditure.
Due to China's vigorous military modernisation drive, the military gap between India and China is growing every year. With the improved logistics infrastructure in Tibet [Images], including the Gormo-Lhasa all-weather railway line, improved road axes with good laterals linking them and many new air strips, the Chinese are now capable of inducting large numbers of troops into Tibet in a time frame that is likely to unhinge Indian war plans.
India needs to invest more in improving the logistics infrastructure along the border with Tibet, in hi-tech intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems for early warning and in generating land- and air-based firepower asymmetries to counter China's numerical superiority. India also needs to raise and suitably equip four to six mountain strike divisions to carry the fight into Chinese territory if it ever becomes necessary. All of these capabilities will require a large infusion of fresh capital. India's growing economy can easily sustain a 0.5 to 1 per cent hike in the defence budget over a period of three to five years, especially if the government simultaneously shows the courage to reduce wasteful subsidies.
Gurmeet Kanwal is director, Centre for Land Warfare Studies, New Delhi.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/apr/29guest1.htm
DEFENCE BUDGET HIKED
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Defence Budget hike to go in pay, little left for arms
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New Delhi: The 23 per cent hike proposed in Defence spending in the Interim Budget seems to send a political signal that national security is high on the United Progressive Alliance Government's agenda.
But a closer look reveals that much of the Rs 27,000 crore hike will not buy weapons but merely fund an inflated salary bill for the military.
The Mumbai terror attack was cited as the provocation for the Rs 27,000-crore hike in the budgetary allocation for Defence.
"Our security environment has deteriorated considerably. In this context, I propose to increase the allocation for Defence, which is part of non-plan expenditure, to 1,41,703 crore. This will include 54,824 crore for capital expenditure," said acting Finance Minster Pranab Mukherjee while presenting the Interim budget in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
A fattened war chest seems to be just what the doctor ordered for beefing up India's military readiness in challenging times.
So it seems. But the devil is in the detail.
A closer look reveals that 41 per cent of this increase will not buy desperately-needed weapon systems but merely fund the salary increase for the military.
Following the Sixth Pay Commission Report, salaries will consume over Rs 46,100 crore, which is a third of the Defence Budget.
The 1.2 million strong Indian Army alone accounts for 80 per cent of this salary bill.
Also, the continuing inability to fully utilise the Defence Budget for the ninth year in a row makes the Rs 54,000 crore set aside for buying new weapons look less impressive.
Over Rs 7,000 crores from the capital outlay for Defence for 2008-09 have been surrendered.
It means that budgetary allocations do not fully translate into military capability.
So, while the government can claim that it is giving due priority to national security, the profile of Defence spending to prepare for military challenges will not change dramatically.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/defence-budget-hike-to-go-in-pay-little-left-for-arms/85557-3.html
Indian Armed Forces
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New Delhi: The 23 per cent hike proposed in Defence spending in the Interim Budget seems to send a political signal that national security is high on the United Progressive Alliance Government's agenda.
But a closer look reveals that much of the Rs 27,000 crore hike will not buy weapons but merely fund an inflated salary bill for the military.
The Mumbai terror attack was cited as the provocation for the Rs 27,000-crore hike in the budgetary allocation for Defence.
"Our security environment has deteriorated considerably. In this context, I propose to increase the allocation for Defence, which is part of non-plan expenditure, to 1,41,703 crore. This will include 54,824 crore for capital expenditure," said acting Finance Minster Pranab Mukherjee while presenting the Interim budget in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
A fattened war chest seems to be just what the doctor ordered for beefing up India's military readiness in challenging times.
So it seems. But the devil is in the detail.
A closer look reveals that 41 per cent of this increase will not buy desperately-needed weapon systems but merely fund the salary increase for the military.
Following the Sixth Pay Commission Report, salaries will consume over Rs 46,100 crore, which is a third of the Defence Budget.
The 1.2 million strong Indian Army alone accounts for 80 per cent of this salary bill.
Also, the continuing inability to fully utilise the Defence Budget for the ninth year in a row makes the Rs 54,000 crore set aside for buying new weapons look less impressive.
Over Rs 7,000 crores from the capital outlay for Defence for 2008-09 have been surrendered.
It means that budgetary allocations do not fully translate into military capability.
So, while the government can claim that it is giving due priority to national security, the profile of Defence spending to prepare for military challenges will not change dramatically.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/defence-budget-hike-to-go-in-pay-little-left-for-arms/85557-3.html
Indian Armed Forces
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Emblem of India | |||||||||||
| Components | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indian Army |  | ||||||||||
| Indian Air Force |  | ||||||||||
| Indian Navy |  | ||||||||||
| Indian Coast Guard |  | ||||||||||
| Paramilitary Forces of India (PMF) | |||||||||||
| Strategic Nuclear Command · Integrated Space Cell | |||||||||||
| Military manpower | |||||||||||
| Total armed forces | 2,414,700 (Ranked 2nd) | ||||||||||
| Active troops | 1,414,000 (Ranked 3rd) | ||||||||||
| Total troops | 3,773,300 (Ranked 7th) | ||||||||||
| Paramilitary | 1,089,700 | ||||||||||
| Conscription age | 16 years of age | ||||||||||
| Availability | 290 million[1] (2005) | ||||||||||
| Fit for military service | 220 million[2] (2005) | ||||||||||
| Military expenditures | |||||||||||
| US$ figure | 32.35 billion (nominal), 100 billion (PPP) (2006 est.)[3] | ||||||||||
| Percent of GDP | 2.0% (2006 est.) [4] | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| Military history of India · British Indian Army · INA | |||||||||||
| Ranks and insignia | |||||||||||
| Air Force · Army · Navy | |||||||||||
| Related Info | |||||||||||
| IAF aircraft list · Indian Army regiments list · Indian naval fleet | |||||||||||
The Indian Armed Forces (Devanāgarī: भारतीय सशस्त्र सेनाएं, Bharatiya Sashatra Senain) is the overall unified military of the Republic of India encompassing the Indian Army, the Indian Air Force, the Indian Navy, and various other inter-service institutions. The President of India serves as the de jure commander-in-chief of the armed forces[4] while the de facto executive power is held by the Union Government headed by the Prime Minister of India. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is the ministry charged with the responsibilities of countering insurgency and ensuring external security of India.
With an estimated total active force of 1,325,000 personnel,[5] India maintains the world's third largest armed forces.[6] Auxiliary services include the Indian Coast Guard, the Central Paramilitary Forces (CPF) and the Strategic Forces Command. India's official defense budget stands at US$32.35 billion[7] but the actual spending on the armed forces is estimated to be much higher than that.[8] Undergoing rapid expansion and modernization[9], the Indian Armed Forces plans to have an active military space program[10] and is currently developing a potent missile defense shield[11] and nuclear triad capability.[12]
[edit] Indian Army
The Indian Army is the world's second largest army in terms of military personnel. It is a completely voluntary service, the military draft having never been imposed in India. The army has rich combat experience in diverse terrains, due to India's diverse geography, and also has a distinguished history of serving in United Nations peacekeeping operations.
The force is headed by the Chief of Army Staff, currently General Deepak Kapoor. The highest rank in the Indian Army is Field Marshal, but it is a largely ceremonial rank and appointments are made by the President of India, on the advice of the Union Cabinet of Ministers, only in exceptional circumstances. (See Field Marshal (India)). Late General S.H.F.J. Manekshaw and the late General K.M. Cariappa are the only two officers who have attained this rank.
The Indian Army has seen military action during the First Kashmir War, Operation Polo, the Sino-Indian War, the Second Kashmir War, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the Sri Lankan Civil War and the Kargil War. Currently, the Indian army has dedicated one brigade of troops to the UN's standby arrangements. Through its large, sustained troop commitments India has come in for much praise for taking part in difficult operations for prolonged periods. The Indian Army has participated in several UN peacekeeping operations, including the ones in Cyprus, Lebanon, Congo, Angola, Cambodia, Vietnam, Namibia, El Salvador, Liberia, Mozambique and Somalia. The army also provided a paramedical unit to facilitate the withdrawal of the sick and wounded in Korea.
[edit] Indian Navy
The Indian Navy is the naval branch of the armed forces of India. With 55,000 men and women, including 5,000 naval aviation personnel and 2,000 Marine Commandos (MARCOS), it is the world's fifth largest navy.[13] The Indian Navy currently operates more than 155 vessels, including the aircraft carrier INS Viraat.In recent years India has started many ambitious state of the art projects to bolster it's maritime capabilities.Also efforts have been made to acquire some ships from foreign countries.The navy is considered to have blue-water capabilities. It is fairly advanced in terms of technology and is in control of one of two Asian aircraft carriers. Two more aircraft carriers are on order and will be joining the Indian Navy. The ships of the Indian Navy are of Indian and foreign origin.[14]
In its maritime doctrine, the Indian Navy establishes its role in providing support to maritime neighbors during natural disasters. This was demonstrated during the Asian tsunami crisis during which the Indian Navy sent 35 ships to support relief efforts in neighbouring countries. The Indian navy has taken part in UN missions in the coast of Somalia and has provided security to an African Union summit held in Mozambique.
India uses its navy to enhance its international relations through joint exercises, port visits, and humanitarian missions, including disaster relief. The Indian Navy is increasing its capabilities as a true blue-water navy; the Indian Navy's doctrine states that this is for the collective good of nations. In November 2008, Indian Navy had sent warships to the pirate affected Somalian coast to protect merchant ships from being captured by the pirates. Its ships have foiled many attempts by the somali pirates to capture different ships and claims to have destroyed a mother ship of the pirates. [15]
[edit] Indian Air Force
The Indian Air Force is the fourth largest air force in the world.[16][17] In its history, it has generally relied on Soviet, British, Israeli and French technology to support its growth. However, in recent times, India has begun building its own original aircraft, including the HAL Tejas, which is a 4.5th generation fighter. Also, India and Russia are currently building a 5th generation stealth aircraft jointly. India has also developed an UAV called Nishant and an advanced light helicopter called the HAL Dhruv.
Recently, it completed a test of a long range BVR air to air missile named Astra and also conducted a successful test of its anti-ballistic missile defense system and hence became the 4th country after the US, Russia, and Israel to do so.
With a strength of approximately 170,000 personnel, 1,130 combat and 1,700 non-combat aircraft in active service,[3] the Indian Air Force is the world's fourth largest.[4] In recent years, the IAF has undertaken an ambitious expansion and modernization program[5] and is increasingly used for India's power projection beyond South Asia.
[edit] Indian Coast Guard
The Indian Coast Guard is the maritime Para Military Force (PMF)created to guard Republic of India's vast coastline. It was created on 18 August 1978 as an independent entity as per the Coast Guard Act. It's primary objective is to guard India's vast coastline and operates under the effective control of the Ministry of Defense.
The coast guard works closely with the Indian Navy and the Indian Customs Department, and is usually headed by a naval officer of the rank of Vice-Admiral. India's coast guard has a large number of fast craft including hovercrafts and hydrofoils. They patrol the seas and river mouths. The coast guard has performed a number of commendable tasks of rescuing distressed personnel. It has also apprehended pirates on high seas and cleaned up oil spills. Heavy patrolling of sensitive areas such as Gujarat, West Bengal and Mumbai have resulted in the nabbing of a large number of smugglers and illegal immigrants.
[edit] Nuclear Command Authority
[edit] Nuclear Doctrine
The Indian military possesses nuclear weapons and sufficient means — by means of missiles and aircraft — to deliver anything over long distances. However, India has a nuclear no-first-use and no use against non-nuclear weapons state policy. It also maintains a non-nuclear doctrine based on credible minimum deterrence. India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), arguing that it unfairly favours the established nuclear powers: While the treaty places restrictions on the non-nuclear weapons states, it does little to curb the modernization and expansion of the nuclear arsenals of the nuclear weapons states; it provides no provision for complete nuclear disarmament.
[edit] Gallantry awards
The highest wartime gallantry award given by the Military of India is the Param Vir Chakra (PVC), followed by the Maha Vir Chakra (MVC) and the Vir Chakra (VrC). Its peacetime equivalent is the Ashoka Chakra. The highest decoration for meritorious service is the Param Vishisht Seva Medal.
[edit] Future
Several reports have mentioned that the Indian military will be an even greater force to reckon with in the future given the advantage of economic growth.[citation needed] Analyses of the Central Intelligence Agency indicates that India is projected to possess the fourth most capable concentration of power by 2015.[18] According to a report published by the US Congress, India is the developing world's leading arms purchaser.[19]
[edit] Recruitment and training
Recruitment is through three military related academies. These include the National Defence Academy, Indian Military Academy and Officers Training Academy. For entrance, one must display that they are both physically and mentally fit to be in the military by sitting examinations and undergoing medical checkups. The complete list of institutions training Indian army were listed in Military academies in India section.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ males age 15-49
- ^ males age 18-49
- ^ [1]
- ^ http://www.prsi.co.in/politicalstructure.html
- ^ http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/060626_asia_balance_powers.pdf
- ^ http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DEL78715.htm
- ^ http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-32231720080229
- ^ http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=316389
- ^ http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/19/news/missile.php?page=2
- ^ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/18/MNRR11AJK9.DTL&type=science
- ^ India successfully tests missile interceptor
- ^ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/India_test_fires_submarine-launched_ballistic_missile/rssarticleshow/2817645.cms
- ^ Global Security article on the Indian Navy
- ^ Global Security The Indian Navy
- ^ India's 12 Steps to a World-Class Navy
- ^ GlobalSecurity.org
- ^ Indian Air Force website
- ^ INDIA IN THE INDIAN OCEAN by Donald L. Berlin Naval War College Review, Spring 2006, Vol. 59, No. 2
- ^ BBC NEWS | Business | India's navy in $1.8bn sub deal
^ Does not include members of the Indian Police Service
[edit] References
- CIA World Factbook 2005: India
- Militarism in India: The Army and Civil Society in Consensus- by A. Kundu
[edit] External links
- BharatRakshak.com- Informative site on the Indian Military
- Indian Armed Forces - Indian military's official website
- Indian Air Force - Official website
- India Defence - Military & Defence News
- Washington Post correspondent Amar Bakshi investigates the Indian perspective of the proposed U.S.-India Nuclear Deal
- Indian Military Build-up TIME.com
- [5]
[edit] Chart by country or organization
Military spending in 2005
Comparisons between figures in this table should be used with caution. There are comparison issues inherent with these figures: for example France, Italy and Spain include in their defence expenditures the costs of maintaining the Gendarmerie, Carabinieri and Guardia Civil- all of which are primarily domestic police forces. On the other hand some countries account military expenses under other budget voices: for example China, Mexico and Russia categorize spending on nuclear weapons, missile and fighter development as scientific expenses, spending on training are categorized under the education budget, and veteran pensions are afforded by welfare budget.
Note that this data is typically compiled by attempting to compute the local currency military expenditures, and then converting them at market exchange rates into a common currency. Therefore changes in the currency markets can cause a nations estimated military expenditures to change, even if that nation's budget remains constant. For developing economies, including China and India, this will result a smaller estimate than if the conversion were done using purchasing power parity. The differences can be substantial. For example, the Chinese Renminbi has a market price of 6.992 per US dollar at the market exchange rate, and an estimated purchasing power parity conversion of 3.694[1]. Using the purchasing power conversion would almost double the estimate of China's military expenditure. On the other hand, converting its entire military budget using a single purchasing power equivalent would be dramatically misleading, as many elements of the budget are not amenable to such a conversion and/or do not share the same conversion factor. For example, typical international commodities such as steel, copper, oil, used in the construction of various military equipment, high tech basic research, and foreign military purchases.
Rank  | | Country | Military expenditures (USD) | Date of information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | World Total | 1,470,000,000,000 | 2008[2] | |
| — | NATO Total | 1,049,875,309,000 | [citation needed] | |
| 1 |  | United States | 651,163,000,000 | 2009[3][4] |
| — |  | European Union Total | 312,259,000,000 | 2008-2009 |
| 2 |  | People's Republic of China | 70,242,645,000 | 2009[5] |
| 3 |  | France | 61,571,330,000 | 2008-2009[6] |
| 4 |  | United Kingdom | 61,280,890,000 | 2008[7] |
| 5 |  | Russia | 50,000,000,000 | 2009[8][9] |
| 6 |  | Japan | 48,860,000,000 | 2008[10] |
| 7 |  | Germany | 45,930,000,000 | 2008[11] |
| 8 |  | Italy | 40,050,000,000 | 2008[12] |
| 9 |  | India | 32,700,000,000 | 2009-2010[13] |
| 10 |  | Saudi Arabia | 31,050,000,000 | 2008[14] |
| 11 |  | Turkey | 30,936,000,000 | 2008[15] |
| 12 |  | South Korea | 28,500,000,000 | 2008[16] |
| 13 |  | Australia | 24,802,000,000 | 2008[17] |
| 14 |  | Brazil | 23,972,836,012 | 2009[18] |
| 15 |  | Canada | 19,507,013,000 | 2008-2009[19] |
| 16 |  | Spain | 18,974,000,000 | 2008 (est.)[20] |
| 17 |  | Iraq | 17,900,000,000 | 2008 |
| 18 |  | Israel | 13,300,000,000 | 2009[21] |
| 19 |  | Netherlands | 12,000,000,000 | 2008[22] |
| 20 |  | Poland | 11,791,000,000 | 2009[23] |
| 21 |  | Republic of China (Taiwan) | 10,500,000,000 | 2008 |
| 22 |  | Greece | 7,934,000,000 | 2007[24] |
| 23 |  | Pakistan | 7,800,000,000 | 2008 |
| 24 |  | Singapore | 7,600,000,000 | 2009[25] |
| 25 |  | Colombia | 7,480,000,000 | 2007[26] |
| 26 |  | Sweden | 6,309,137,714 | 2007[27] |
| 27 |  | Iran | 6,300,000,000 | 2005[28] |
| 28 |  | Mexico | 6,070,000,000 | 2006[29][30] |
| 29 |  | Norway | 5,725,000,000 | 2007 |
| 30 |  | North Korea | 5,500,000,000 | 2005[31] |
| 31 |  | Chile | 5,193,000,000 | 2007[32] |
| 32 |  | Thailand | 5,000,000,000 | 2009 [33] |
| 33 |  | Algeria | 4,997,000,000 | 2009 |
| 34 |  | Indonesia | 4,740,000,000 | 2008 |
| 35 |  | Argentina | 4,300,000,000 | NA |
| 36 |  | Morocco | 4,143,000,000 | 2009 |
| 37 |  | South Africa | 4,067,879,840 | 2008-2009[34] |
| 38 |  | Belgium | 4,000,000,000 | 2007[35] |
| 39 |  | Venezuela | 4,000,000,000 | 2007 |
| 40 |  | Finland | 3,700,000,000 | 2009[36] |
| 41 |  | Portugal | 3,497,800,000 | 2003 |
| 42 |  | Egypt | 3,300,000,000 | 2003[37] |
| 43 |  | Denmark | 3,271,600,000 | 2003 |
| 44 |  | Vietnam | 3,200,000,000 | 2005 [38] |
| 45 |  | Kuwait | 3,007,000,000 | 2005 |
| 46 |  | Austria | 2,978,000,000 | FY08[39] |
| 47 |  | Romania | 2,900,000,000 | 2007[40] |
| 48 |  | Czech Republic | 2,840,000,000 | 2008[41] |
| 49 |  | Switzerland | 2,548,000,000 | 2005 |
| 50 |  | Azerbaijan | 2,460,000,000 | 2009[42][43] |
| 51 |  | Ukraine | 2,066,806,000 | 2008[44] |
| 52 |  | Angola | 2,000,000,000 | 2005 |
| 53 |  | Peru | 1,829,300,000 | 2008 [45] |
| 54 |  | Malaysia | 1,690,000,000 | NA |
| 55 |  | Sri Lanka | 1,610,000,000 | 2009 [46] |
| 56 |  | United Arab Emirates | 1,600,000,000 | NA |
| 57 |  | New Zealand | 1,526,000,000 | 2008 |
| 58 |  | Slovakia | 1,408,000,000 | 2008 |
| 59 |  | Jordan | 1,392,000,000 | 2005 |
| 61 |  | Hungary | 1,376,000,000 | 2007 |
| 62 |  | Philippines | 1,348,000,000 | 2007 |
| 63 |  | Bulgaria | 1,339,000,000 | 2008[47] |
| 64 |  | Libya | 1,300,000,000 | 2007 |
| 65 |  | Ireland | 1,300,000,000 | 2007 |
| 66 |  | Serbia | 1,200,000,000 | 2007 |
| 67 |  | Croatia | 1,140,000,000 | 2008 |
| 68 |  | Yemen | 992,200,000 | 2005 |
| 69 |  | Syria | 858,000,000 | 2005 |
| 70 |  | Bangladesh | 836,900,000 | 2007 |
| 71 |  | Georgia | 780,000,000 | 2007 |
| 72 |  | Nigeria | 737,600,000 | 2005 |
| 73 |  | Qatar | 694,000,000 | 2005 |
| 74 |  | Cuba | 694,000,000 | NA |
| 75 |  | Bahrain | 627,700,000 | 2005 |
| 76 |  | Lithuania | 621,000,000 | 2007 |
| 77 |  | Sudan | 587,000,000 | 2004 |
| 78 |  | Lebanon | 540,600,000 | 2004 |
| 79 |  | Armenia | 495,000,000 | 2009[48] |
| 80 |  | Belarus | 420,500,000 | 2006 |
| 81 |  | Ethiopia | 400,000,000 | 2008/9[49][50] |
| 82 |  | Cyprus | 384,000,000 | NA |
| 83 |  | Uruguay | 371,200,000 | 2005 |
| 84 |  | Slovenia | 370,000,000 | 2007 |
| 85 |  | Tunisia | 356,000,000 | NA |
| 86 |  | Madagascar | 329,000,000 | 2005 |
| 87 |  | Botswana | 325,500,000 | 2005 |
| 88 |  | Brunei | 290,700,000 | 2004 |
| 89 |  | Kenya | 280,500,000 | 2005 |
| 90 |  | Estonia | 259,000,000 | FY06 |
| 91 |  | Oman | 252,990,000 | 2005 |
| 92 |  | Côte d'Ivoire | 246,600,000 | 2005 |
| 93 |  | Albania | 235,000,000 | 2007 |
| 94 |  | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 234,300,000 | NA |
| 95 |  | Luxembourg | 231,076,480 | 2003 |
| 96 |  | Cameroon | 230,200,000 | 2005 |
| 97 |  | Kazakhstan | 221,800,000 | FY02 |
| 98 |  | Eritrea | 220,100,000 | 2005 |
| 99 |  | Uzbekistan | 200,000,000 | NA |
| 100 |  | Uganda | 192,800,000 | 2005 |
| 101 |  | Dominican Republic | 180,000,000 | FY98 |
| 102 |  | Guatemala | 169,800,000 | 2005 |
| 103 |  | El Salvador | 161,700,000 | 2005 |
| 104 |  | Equatorial Guinea | 152,200,000 | 2005 |
| 105 |  | Panama | 150,000,000 | 2005 |
| 106 |  | Namibia | 149,500,000 | 2005 |
| 107 |  | Bolivia | 130,000,000 | 2005 |
| 108 |  | Zimbabwe | 124,700,000 | 2005 |
| 109 |  | Afghanistan | 122,400,000 | 2005 |
| 110 |  | Zambia | 121,700,000 | 2005 |
| 111 |  | Guinea | 119,700,000 | 2005 |
| 112 |  | Republic of Macedonia | 117,710,000 | 2006 |
| 113 |  | Senegal | 117,300,000 | 2005 |
| 114 |  | Cambodia | 112,000,000 | NA |
| 115 |  | Mali | 106,300,000 | 2005 |
| 116 |  | Nepal | 104,900,000 | 2005 |
| 117 |  | Congo, Democratic Republic of the | 103,700,000 | 2005 |
| 118 |  | Benin | 100,900,000 | 2005 |
| 119 |  | Honduras | 99,410,000 | 2005 |
| 120 |  | Turkmenistan | 90,000,000 | NA |
| 121 |  | Latvia | 87,000,000 | 2007 |
| 122 |  | Congo, Republic of the | 85,220,000 | 2005 |
| 123 |  | Ghana | 83,650,000 | 2005 |
| 124 |  | Costa Rica [51] | 83,460,000 | 2005 |
| 125 |  | Mozambique | 78,030,000 | 2005 |
| 126 |  | Burkina Faso | 74,830,000 | 2005 |
| 127 |  | Chad | 68,950,000 | 2005 |
| 128 |  | Liberia | 67,400,000 | 2005 |
| 129 |  | Trinidad and Tobago | 66,720,000 | 2003 |
| 130 |  | Rwanda | 53,660,000 | 2005 |
| 131 |  | Paraguay | 53,100,000 | 2003 |
| 132 |  | Maldives | 45,070,000 | 2005 |
| 133 |  | Niger | 44,780,000 | 2005 |
| 134 |  | Malta | 44,640,000 | 2005 |
| 135 |  | Burundi | 43,900,000 | 2005 |
| 136 |  | Swaziland | 41,600,000 | 2005 |
| 137 |  | Lesotho | 41,100,000 | 2005 |
| 138 |  | Burma | NA | NA |
| 139 |  | Fiji | 36,000,000 | 2004 |
| 140 |  | Tajikistan | 35,400,000 | FY01 |
| 141 |  | Nicaragua | 32,270,000 | 2005 |
| 142 |  | Jamaica | 31,170,000 | 2003 |
| 143 |  | Togo | 29,980,000 | 2005 |
| 144 |  | Djibouti | 29,050,000 | 2005 |
| 145 |  | Iceland | 26,000,000 | 2008[52] |
| 146 |  | Haiti | 25,960,000 | 2003 |
| 147 |  | Mongolia | 23,100,000 | FY02 |
| 148 |  | Somalia | 22,340,000 | 2005 |
| 149 |  | Tanzania | 21,200,000 | 2005 |
| 150 |  | Mauritania | 19,320,000 | 2005 |
| 151 |  | Kyrgyzstan | 19,200,000 | FY01 |
| 152 |  | Belize | 19,000,000 | 2005 |
| 153 |  | Papua New Guinea | 16,900,000 | 2003 |
| 154 |  | Central African Republic | 16,370,000 | 2005 |
| 155 |  | Malawi | 15,810,000 | 2005 |
| 156 |  | Seychelles | 14,850,000 | 2005 |
| 157 |  | Sierra Leone | 14,250,000 | 2005 |
| 158 |  | Comoros | 12,870,000 | 2005 |
| 159 |  | Mauritius | 12,040,000 | 2005 |
| 160 |  | Laos | 11,040,000 | 2005 |
| 161 |  | Guinea-Bissau | 9,455,000 | 2005 |
| 162 |  | Moldova | 8,700,000 | 2004 |
| 163 |  | Bhutan | 8,281,000 | 2005 |
| 164 |  | Suriname | 7,494,000 | 2005 |
| 165 |  | Cape Verde | 7,178,000 | 2005 |
| 166 |  | Guyana | 6,479,000 | 2003 |
| 167 |  | East Timor | 4,400,000 | FY03 |
| 168 |  | Bermuda, UK overseas territory | 4,030,000 | 2001 |
| 169 |  | Gambia, The | 1,547,000 | 2004 |
| 170 |  | San Marino | 700,000 | 2005 |
| 171 |  | São Tomé and Príncipe | 581,700 | 2004 |
[edit] Stockholm International Peace Research Institute figures (2007)
Military spending in 2007, in USD, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Conversion to USD done by market exchange rate.
The 15 countries with the largest defense budgets (2007)
| Rank | Country | Spending ($ b.) | World Share (%) | |
| — | World Total | 1339.0 | 100 | |
| 1 | | United States | 547.0 | 45 |
| 2 | | United Kingdom | 59.7 | 5 |
| 3 | | China | 58.3 | 5 |
| 4 | | France | 53.6 | 4 |
| 5 | | Japan | 43.6 | 4 |
| 6 | | Germany | 36.9 | 3 |
| 7 | | Russia | 35.4 | 3 |
| 8 | | Saudi Arabia | 33.8 | 3 |
| 9 | | Italy | 33.1 | 3 |
| 10 | | India | 24.2 | 2 |
| 11 | | South Korea | 22.6 | 2 |
| 12 | | Brazil | 15.3 | 1 |
| 13 | | Canada | 15.2 | 1 |
| 14 | | Australia | 15.1 | 1 |
| 15 | | Spain | 14.6 | 1 |
[edit] List of countries by military expenditure as a percentage of GDP
Map of the military expenditures as a percentage of GDP by country, CIA figures.
Below is a list of countries ranked by order of military expenditure as a percentage of GDP. This statistic reflects the importance of military buildup and army modernization for all countries. It also indicated how much priority each country places in military expenditure.
The greater a country spends on its military as a percentage of its GDP, the less money it will have to spend on other crucial aspects such as infrastructure and education, and the more likely it will come under scrutiny from other countries.[53]
The trend is that developing countries, especially Middle Eastern countries with emerging markets due to their oil wealth, and countries in proximity of conflict zones seem to be spending the most as a percentage of their GDP to modernize their military and to try to catch up with Western countries, which spend less as a result of having built a strong modernized military over the past few decades.
The source of this table is the World Fact Book 2008, published by the Central Intelligence Agency, available at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2034rank.html. Countries for which no information is available are not included in this list.
| Rank | | Country | Military expenditures as % of GDP | Date of information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | Oman | 11.4 | 2005 est. |
| 2 | | Qatar | 10 | 2005 est. |
| 3 | | Saudi Arabia | 10 | 2005 est. |
| 4 | | Iraq | 8.6 | 2006 |
| 5 | | Jordan | 8.6 | 2006 |
| 6 | | Israel | 7.3 | 2006 |
| 7 | | Yemen | 6.6 | 2006 |
| 8 | | Armenia | 6.5 | FY01 |
| 9 | | Eritrea | 6.3 | 2006 est. |
| 10 | | Macedonia | 6 | 2005 est. |
| 11 | | Burundi | 5.9 | 2006 est. |
| 12 | | Syria | 5.9 | 2005 est. |
| 13 | | Angola | 5.7 | 2006 |
| 14 | | Mauritania | 5.5 | 2006 |
| 15 | | Maldives | 5.5 | 2005 est. |
| 16 | | Kuwait | 5.3 | 2006 |
| 17 | | Turkey | 5.3 | 2005 est. |
| 18 | | El Salvador | 5 | 2006 |
| 19 | | Morocco | 5 | 2003 est. |
| 20 | | Singapore | 4.9 | 2005 est. |
| 21 | | Swaziland | 4.7 | 2006 |
| 22 | | Bahrain | 4.5 | 2006 |
| 23 | | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 4.5 | 2005 est. |
| 24 | | Brunei | 4.5 | 2006 |
| 25 | | Greece | 4.3 | 2005 est. |
| 26 | | Chad | 4.2 | 2006 |
| 27 | | United States | 4.06 | 2005 est. |
| 28 | | Libya | 3.9 | 2005 est. |
| 29 | | Russia | 3.9 | 2005 |
| 30 | | Tajikistan | 3.9 | 2005 est. |
| 31 | | Cuba | 3.8 | 2006 est. |
| 32 | | Djibouti | 3.8 | 2006 |
| 33 | | Cyprus | 3.8 | 2005 est. |
| 34 | | Zimbabwe | 3.8 | 2006 |
| 35 | | Namibia | 3.7 | 2006 |
| 36 | | Colombia | 3.5 | 2007 est. |
| 37 |  | Gabon | 3.4 | 2005 est. |
| 38 | | Egypt | 3.4 | 2005 est. |
| 39 | | Turkmenistan | 3.4 | 2005 est. |
| 40 | | Algeria | 3.3 | 2006 |
| 41 | | Botswana | 3.3 | 2006 |
| 42 | | United Arab Emirates | 3.1 | 2005 est. |
| 43 | | Guinea-Bissau | 3.1 | 2005 est. |
| 44 | | Lebanon | 3.1 | 2005 est. |
| 45 | | Congo, Republic of the | 3.1 | 2006 |
| 46 |  | Solomon Islands | 3 | 2006 |
| 47 | | Cambodia | 3 | 2005 est. |
| 48 | | Ethiopia | 3 | 2006 |
| 49 | | Indonesia | 3 | 2005 est. |
| 50 | | Sudan | 3 | 2005 est. |
| 51 | | Pakistan | 3 | 2007 est. |
| 52 | | Rwanda | 2.9 | 2006 est. |
| 53 | | Comoros | 2.8 | 2006 |
| 54 |  | Ecuador | 2.8 | 2006 |
| 55 | | Kenya | 2.8 | 2006 |
| 56 | | Chile | 2.7 | 2006 |
| 57 | | Korea, South | 2.7 | 2006 |
| 58 | | Azerbaijan | 2.6 | 2005 est. |
| 59 | | Lesotho | 2.6 | 2006 |
| 60 | | France | 2.6 | 2005 est. |
| 61 | | Brazil | 2.6 | 2006 est. |
| 62 | | Sri Lanka | 2.6 | 2006 |
| 63 | | Bulgaria | 2.6 | 2005 est. |
| 64 | | Congo, Democratic Republic of the | 2.5 | 2006 |
| 65 | | India | 2.5 | 2006 |
| 66 | | Iran | 2.5 | 2006 |
| 67 | | Vietnam | 2.5 | 2005 est. |
| 68 | | Australia | 2.4 | 2006 |
| 69 | | United Kingdom | 2.4 | 2005 est. |
| 70 | | Croatia | 2.39 | 2005 est. |
| 71 | | Portugal | 2.3 | 2005 est. |
| 72 | | Sierra Leone | 2.3 | 2006 |
| 73 | | Fiji | 2.2 | 2005 est. |
| 74 | | Taiwan | 2.2 | |
| 75 | | Uganda | 2.2 | 2006 |
| 76 | | Burma | 2.1 | 2005 est. |
| 77 | | Malaysia | 2.03 | 2005 est. |
| 78 | | Estonia | 2 | 2005 est. |
| 79 | World | 2 | 2005 est. | |
| 80 | | Uzbekistan | 2 | 2005 est. |
| 81 | | Seychelles | 2 | 2006 est. |
| 82 | | Finland | 2 | 2005 est. |
| 83 | | Afghanistan | 1.9 | 2006 est. |
| 84 | | Romania | 1.9 | 2007 est. |
| 85 | | Norway | 1.9 | 2005 est. |
| 86 | | Mali | 1.9 | 2006 |
| 87 | | Bolivia | 1.9 | 2006 |
| 88 | | Slovakia | 1.87 | 2005 est. |
| 89 | | Guyana | 1.8 | 2006 |
| 90 | | Thailand | 1.8 | 2005 est. |
| 91 | | Zambia | 1.8 | 2005 est. |
| 92 | | Italy | 1.8 | 2005 est. |
| 93 | | Hungary | 1.75 | 2005 est. |
| 94 | | Poland | 1.71 | 2005 est. |
| 95 | | Benin | 1.7 | 2006 |
| 96 | | Guinea | 1.7 | 2006 |
| 97 | | South Africa | 1.7 | 2006 |
| 98 | | Slovenia | 1.7 | 2005 est. |
| 99 | | Cote d'Ivoire | 1.6 | 2005 est |
| 100 | | Netherlands | 1.6 | 2005 est. |
| 101 | | Togo | 1.6 | 2005 est. |
| 102 | | Uruguay | 1.6 | 2006 |
| 103 | | Nepal | 1.6 | 2006 |
| 104 | | Bangladesh | 1.5 | 2006 |
| 105 | | Sweden | 1.5 | 2005 est. |
| 106 | | Peru | 1.5 | 2006 |
| 107 | | Nigeria | 1.5 | 2006 |
| 108 | | Denmark | 1.5 | |
| 109 | | Germany | 1.5 | 2005 est. |
| 110 | | Albania | 1.49 | 2005 est. |
| 111 | | Czech Republic | 1.46 | 2007 est. |
| 112 | | China | 1.4 | 2008[54] |
| 113 | | Belize | 1.4 | 2006 |
| 114 | | Ukraine | 1.4 | 2005 est. |
| 115 | | Belarus | 1.4 | 2005 est. |
| 116 | | Kyrgyzstan | 1.4 | 2005 est. |
| 117 | | Papua New Guinea | 1.4 | 2005 est. |
| 118 | | Tunisia | 1.4 | 2006 |
| 119 | | Senegal | 1.4 | 2005 est. |
| 120 | | Mongolia | 1.4 | 2006 |
| 121 | | Argentina | 1.3 | 2005 est. |
| 122 | | Cameroon | 1.3 | 2006 |
| 123 | | Niger | 1.3 | 2006 |
| 124 | | Malawi | 1.3 | 2006 |
| 125 | | Liberia | 1.3 | 2006 est. |
| 126 | | Belgium | 1.3 | 2005 est. |
| 127 | | Latvia | 1.2 | 2005 est. |
| 128 | | Burkina Faso | 1.2 | 2006 |
| 129 | | Venezuela | 1.2 | 2005 est. |
| 130 | | Spain | 1.2 | 2005 est. |
| 131 | | Lithuania | 1.2 | |
| 132 | | Canada | 1.1 | 2005 est. |
| 133 | | Central African Republic | 1.1 | 2006 est. |
| 134 | | Bhutan | 1 | 2005 est. |
| 135 | | Madagascar | 1 | 2006 |
| 136 | | Switzerland | 1 | 2005 est. |
| 137 | | Panama | 1 | 2006 |
| 138 | | Paraguay | 1 | 2006 est. |
| 139 | | New Zealand | 1 | 2005 est. |
| 140 | | Austria | 0.9 | 2005 est. |
| 141 | | Kazakhstan | 0.9 | FY02 |
| 142 | | Luxembourg | 0.9 | 2005 est. |
| 143 |  | Tonga | 0.9 | 2006 est. |
| 144 | | Somalia | 0.9 | 2005 est. |
| 145 | | Philippines | 0.9 | 2005 est. |
| 146 | | Ireland | 0.9 | 2005 est. |
| 147 | | Dominican Republic | 0.8 | 2006 |
| 148 | | Sao Tome and Principe | 0.8 | 2006 |
| 149 | | Japan | 0.8 | 2006 |
| 150 | | Mozambique | 0.8 | 2006 |
| 151 | | Ghana | 0.8 | 2006 est. |
| 152 | | Cape Verde | 0.7 | 2005 |
| 153 | | Malta | 0.7 | 2006 est. |
| 154 | | Honduras | 0.6 | 2006 est. |
| 155 | | Nicaragua | 0.6 | 2006 |
| 156 | | Suriname | 0.6 | 2006 est. |
| 157 | | Jamaica | 0.6 | 2006 est. |
| 158 | | Georgia | 0.59 | 2005 est. |
| 159 |  | Barbados | 0.5 | 2006 est. |
| 160 | | Gambia, The | 0.5 | 2006 |
| 161 |  | Bahamas, The | 0.5 | 2006 |
| 162 | | Mexico | 0.5 | 2006 est. |
| 163 | | Laos | 0.5 | 2006 |
| 164 | | Costa Rica [51] | 0.4 | 2006 |
| 165 | | Guatemala | 0.4 | 2006 |
| 166 | | Moldova | 0.4 | 2005 est. |
| 167 | | Haiti | 0.4 | 2006 |
| 168 | | Mauritius | 0.3 | 2006 est. |
| 169 | | Trinidad and Tobago | 0.3 | 2006 |
| 170 | | Tanzania | 0.2 | 2005 est. |
| 171 | | Bermuda | 0.11 | 2005 est. |
| 172 | | Equatorial Guinea | 0.1 | 2006 est. |
| 173 | | Iceland | 0.0 | 2005 est. |
[edit] List of countries by military expenditure as purchasing power parity (PPP)
Here is a list of major spenders in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) estimated by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). These figures should be treated with caution since estimating defence expenditure using PPP is misleading[55].
| Rank | Country | Military expenditures as PPP (USD billion) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | USA | 547 |
| 2 | | China | 140 |
| 3 | | Russia | 78.7 |
| 4 | | India | 72.7 |
| 5 | | United Kingdom | 54.7 |
| 6 | | Saudi Arabia | 52.8 |
| 7 | | France | 47.9 |
| 8 | | Japan | 37.0 |
| 9 | | Germany | 33.0 |
| 10 | | Italy | 29.6 |
| 11 | | South Korea | 29.4 |
| 12 | | Brazil | 26.1 |
| 13 | | Iran | 22.1 |
| 14 | | Turkey | 16.5 |
| 15 | | Taiwan | 15.8 |
[edit] See also
 | Wikinews has related news: Global annual military spending tops $1.2 trillion |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Data as of Oct 2007. See Renminbi
- ^ The FY 2009 Pentagon Spending Request - Global Military Spending http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/policy/securityspending/articles/fy09_dod_request_global/ Center for Arms Control and Non/Proliferation study
- ^ http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/budget/defense.pdf
- ^ 2009 US Defense Budget http://www.slate.com/id/2183592/pagenum/all/
- ^ http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-03/04/content_7535244.htm
- ^ http://www.defense.gouv.fr/ministre/prises_de_parole/discours/projet_de_budget_2008_m_herve_morin_26_09_07 Conférence de presse de M. Hervé Morin, ministre de la Défense
- ^ http://www.dasa.mod.uk/UKDS2008/c1/table101.html
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-09-19-Russia-defense_N.htm
- ^ http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=115073
- ^ Asia Times Online
- ^ Deutsche Welle
- ^ http://www.scribd.com/doc/5207716/Budget-Difesa-ITALIA-2008.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute: The fifteen major spenders in 2007.
- ^ NATO-Turkey Compendium on Financial and Economic Data Relating to Defense
- ^ http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/01/205_16590.html
- ^ Australian Department of Defence (2008). Portfolio Budget Statements 2007-08. Page 19.
- ^ National Congress of Brazil. Brazilian Federal Budget (2009) - Ministry of Defense (Ministério da Defesa).
- ^ Departmental Planned Spending and Full-Time Equivalents
- ^ http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2009/p09-009.pdf
- ^ 51.6 mld NIS
- ^ Rijksbegroting
- ^ 25 mld PLN
- ^ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
- ^ http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_337818.html
- ^ http://www.mindefensa.gov.co/descargas/Documentos_Home/Presupuesto_MDN_2007.pdf
- ^ Så fördelas pengarna
- ^ Iran's defense spending 'a fraction of Persian Gulf neighbors'
- ^ Global Firepower, Mexico profile
- ^ CIA World Factbook, Military expenditures
- ^ Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL): The U.S. military machine: North Korea bomb test in perspective
- ^ Saorbats, Chile profile
- ^ Ministry of Finance - Thailand.
- ^ Budget at a glance
- ^ Uitgaven
- ^ http://www.vm.fi/vm/fi/04_julkaisut_ja_asiakirjat/01_julkaisut/01_budjetit/20090126Budjet/Budjettikatsaus_suomi_NETTI%2bKANNET.pdf
- ^ Federation of American Scientists—Egypt Military Force
- ^ Global Security military expenditures
- ^ Austrian Budget for 2007-2008: 2.037 Billion Euros/ Exchangerate 1:1.46
- ^ (MoND Budget as of 2007)
- ^ The FY 2009 Pentagon Spending Request - Global Military Spending http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/policy/securityspending/articles/fy09_dod_request_global/ Center for Arms Control and Non/Proliferation study
- ^ The budget of the Azeri Armed Forces reaches $2 Billion
- ^ http://jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2373496 Azerbaijan military budget to increase by $343 mln from 2008 budget
- ^ Ukrainian Armed Forces White Book
- ^ [http://www.mef.gob.pe Ministry of Economy and Finance of Peru].
- ^ Ministry of Finance and Planning Sri Lanka.
- ^ План за организационно изграждане и модернизация на въоръжените сили до 2015 година
- ^ Armenian military budget 2009
- ^ Al Jazeera English - Africa - Famine-hit Ethiopia ups army budget
- ^ allAfrica.com: Ethiopia: Country to Spend $5.6 Billion in 2008/09 (Page 1 of 1)
- ^ a b Costa Rica has abolished its military in 1949, but the CIA World Factbook counts the expenditures of the Ministry of Public Security as military spending. SIPRI lists the amount as "not available or not applicable", yet mentions "Expenditure for paramilitary forces, border guard, and maritime and air surveillance is less than 0.05% of GDP"
- ^ Icelandic State Budget for 2008
- ^ World Politics Review | China's Latest Military Spending Increase Garners Anxious Reactions
- ^ http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-03/04/content_7535244.htm
- ^ The Chinese Defense Budget: Myths and Reality http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2007/04/23/the-chinese-defense-budget-myths-and-reality/
[edit] References
India Together: Defence or development spending? - May 2004
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