Context

As per the released 'Statista' report, a Germany-based private organization that provides data and statistics has mentioned that India's Defence ministry is the world's biggest employer with around 2.92 million people in the year 2021-22.

Key highlights of the Report:

• A report said that India's Ministry of Defence is the world's biggest employer with 2.92 million people which includes combined active service personnel, reservists, and civilian staff.
• According to the report, no company in the world has more employees than Walmart, a US retail giant which is around 2.3 million employees.
• India's military spending of USD 76.6 billion ranked third highest in the world.

India’s Defence Expenditure:

• The overall defence expenditure planned for FY 2021-2022 is 3,62,345.62 Crore (US$ 49.6 billion), an increase of Rs.24,792.62 Crore (US$ 3.4 billion) over the Budget Estimates of FY 2020-2021.
• India is spending 7 per cent of its GDP on defence. In the list of top ten defence spenders, only the US, Russia, and Saudi Arabia spend a larger share of their GDP on defence.

What does the Military Budget mean?

• The military budget or defense budget of India is the portion of the overall budget of the Union budget of India that is allocated for the funding of the Indian Armed Forces.
• The military budget finances;
  • Employee salaries and training costs,
  • maintenance of equipment and facilities,
  • support of new or on-going operations, & development and
  • Procurement of new technologies, weapons, equipment, and vehicles.
• The Indian Army accounts for more than half of the total defense budget of India, with most of the expenditure going to the maintenance of cantonments, salaries, and pensions, instead of critical arms and ammunition.