LUCKNOW, India -- Military equipment makers are eager to expand in India, the world's second-largest arms importer. Their enthusiasm was evident at a recent trade show, where memorandums of understanding worth $8 billion were signed, a fourfold increase from just two years ago.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a Swedish think tank, estimates that India alone accounted for 9.5% of global weapons imports for the five years through 2018, behind only Saudi Arabia. India's defense budget for the fiscal year 2019-20 ending March stood at $70 billion, up 5.2% from a year earlier.
