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<ul><li>The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by <keyword id="3658" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>’s Defence Minister, <keyword id="129243" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nirmala-Sitharaman">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword> approved a ₹46 billion contract for new military equipment.</li><li>In the accelerating <keyword id="6828657" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="asian-arms-race">Asian arms race</keyword>, India lags behind in both absolute and relative spending. </li><li>Two-thirds of India’s military bill goes toward paying the infantry, leaving little left over for purchasing new weaponry.</li></ul>India’s defence ministry has just <a href="http://pib.nic.in/newsite/pmreleases.aspx?mincode=33">approved the acquisition</a> of new military equipment in a ₹46 billion ($6.5 billion) deal. Their current war chest is quickly becoming obsolete, and this new contract ties in with the Prime Minister <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>’s promise of spending ₹17 trillion ($250 billion) towards the modernisation of military technology. This tender is particularly significant because it’s the first time that the India government will be applying the technology from a foreign investor while building the equipment at home. 
 
 
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 India isn’t alone its efforts to build up its arms. The annual defence spending in Asia, on average, has doubled over the century to nearly ₹31.5 trillion ($450 billion). Asian arms race Many <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2135802/asian-arms-race-stoked-chinas-booming-defence-budget-analysts">believe</a> it was China that instigated the arms race when in 2010 their military spending alone accounted for 28% of the military spending across Asia. In 2014, that ratio increased even further to 38%. As per the <a href="https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2018-04/sipri_fs_1805_milex_2017.pdf">Stockholm International Peace Research Institute</a>, the United States led the world with an arms spending of ₹42.7 trillion ($610 billion) while China came in second with ₹16 trillion ($228 billion). India was in 5th place with ₹4.5 trillion ($63.9 billion) as their military expenditure. While India’s spending is a fraction of what other countries are bailing out, it’s still up from ₹3 trillion ($47 billion) in 2012. More than absolute numbers, the proportional increases in budgets are more telling. In Asia, specifically, the largest increases in military spending were seen in Cambodia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and China. Aside from arms, China’s neighbouring nations are also more actively engaged in curating their strategic partnerships to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/indo-japanese-relations-hedge-against-chinas-rise-with-their-first-ever-military-exercise/articleshow/65492296.cms">hedge against the risk</a> of the United States failing to contain the Chinese incursions into the South China Sea. Modernisation of India’s military India’s military spending as forever been at the hub of controversy since the <keyword id="474078" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="bofors-scandal">Bofors scandal</keyword> in the 1980s. More recently, the deal for the acquisition of 36 Rafale jets off-the-shelf from France instead of 126 fighter jets that would partially be made in India has been in the limelight. Most experts argue that 36 jets are nowhere near enough for India’s requirements. An <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/902e056c-7756-11e2-b95a-00144feabdc0">ad-hoc</a> approach to India’s military strategy would do more harm than good in the long-run. In fact, one of the major issues with India’s military spending has been that more than two-thirds of the budget is allocated towards the salaries of people employed in the armed forces and their respective pensions. While infantry is important, its leaves too little for India to spend on weapons or its own research and development. That being said, the impetus from foreign investments being introduced into the defense sector should catalyse faster growth. (Representative image)

Arms spending in Asia continues as India shells out another ₹46 billion

<keyword id="6360791" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Amethi">Amethi</keyword>, the Gandhian stronghold since 1947 has always dreamt of unparalleled growth-what with the Gandhi’s promising them the world, come every election season! It was first ruled upon by <keyword id="134281" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Sanjay-Gandhi">Sanjay Gandhi</keyword>, followed by former Prime Minister <keyword id="12596" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Rajiv-Gandhi">Rajiv Gandhi</keyword>, an MP from the city for 10 consecutive years. Post Rajiv’s demise, Amethi was ‘inherited’ by his widow, <keyword id="689" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Sonia-Gandhi">Sonia Gandhi</keyword> and now has been passed onto the Congress heir apparent, <keyword id="5268" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Rahul-Gandhi">Rahul Gandhi</keyword>. 
 
Seeing the obvious lack of growth and thereby the massive stated opportunity, during the elections in 2014, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and now Minister of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) Smriti Irani left no stone unturned to win the constituency for herself, ousting the Gandhi’s from their stronghold. Alas, that was not to be. Irani must have blamed her ‘rotten luck’ for her unexpected defeat and Rahul’s success, since a constituency, still counted as one of the country’s most deprived, surely needed a change in leadership. 
 
But then, nothing could be shoddier than the fact that even big names from the political class could not even get the town the very basic in facilities. In fact, the trump card played against it and left it as a victim. A victim of political brawls. 
 
Or if we just change a few words in what has been said so far, then maybe you will get a clearer picture of the debacle that Amethi is witnessing today and how much worse it could turn in the next few years, given the never-dying down tug-of-war. 
 It won’t be wrong to say that Amethi, right from the very beginning was a mere card which was used by the big political faces of the day. Inhabitants of Amethi thought that the political biggies would bring them the basic infrastructure they so desperately lacked. Instead, this place only made headlines for the pointless battles the political brass fought. The tide in fact turned for the worse in 1984, when ousted Gandhi bahu, Maneka fought a pitched battle against brother-in-law, Rajiv Gandhi, soon after her mother-in-law, his mother and the nation’s Prime Minister, <keyword id="6354478" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Indira-Gandhi">Indira Gandhi</keyword>’s assassination. Maneka fought tooth and nail, but lost to Rajiv by a massive margin, given the sympathy wave he was riding on soon after his mother’s untimely murder outside her own house, by one of her own bodyguards. 
 
Amethi, soon turned into a ground for political buffoonery, with over 40 independent candidates standing against the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, in the 1989 elections. But, despite the bofors’ scandal taint, Rajiv registered a sounding victory, with a margin of over two lakh votes. The astounding defeat notwithstanding, the trend continued and Independent candidates (in more than usual numbers) fought elections from Amethi. 
 During the 2014 <keyword id="6355187" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Lok-Sabha">Lok Sabha</keyword> polls, BJP, very aggressively campaigned under the leadership of <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> with the slogan ‘congress-mukt Bharat’ (Congress-free India) and former model and TV actress <keyword id="371578" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Smriti-Zubin-Irani">Smriti Zubin Irani</keyword> was nominated as the BJP candidate from Amethi. Yet another competitor was the newly formed <keyword id="6354944" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Aam-Aadmi-Party">Aam Aadmi Party</keyword>’s (<keyword id="6356115" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="AAP">AAP</keyword>) poet-turned-member <keyword id="540848" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="kumar-vishwas">Kumar Vishwas</keyword>, who wanted to give Rahul a run for his money. However, despite the several failings of the Congress party in Amethi and more so that of the Gandhi-clan, the town voted back into power Rahul Gandhi. 
 
The oldest scuffle ground for BJP and Congress, Amethi, in 2014 came under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and it experienced another tussle when their leader disappeared and reports published afterwards informed about his ‘vacation’. Rahul’s biggest opponent, BJP candidate from Amethi, Smriti Irani, without missing out on a chance reached out to the people of Amethi and distributed compensation cheques to the farmers who were dying of unseasonal rains. Not just this but Irani also played a card against Gandhi here and accused him of ‘holidaying’ when people of his constituency were in trouble. 
 With no choice left this time, Gandhi in his reply pointed the finger at the <keyword id="6360789" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Modi-Government">Modi government</keyword> for scrapping the Food Park plan that he claimed could have generated employment for hundreds in Amethi. 
 
All the fighting aside, the real concern now is if Amethi gained anything from all the mud-slinging over the decades. The answer to that is that Amethi today is known for all the wrong reasons. Far from being a developed township it could have been, given the political attention it has had over the years, it is today known as one of the country’s most impoverished regions, for the very same reasons. And if the fashion persists, it’ll only be a case of from the frying pan to the fire for the residents of Amethi. 
 
Image: indiatimes

Amethi: the victim of political brawls

With the news of demise of J&amp;K Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed goes a dignified man from this world who lived the life of a true Indian Muslim to say the least. Born to a humble family in south Kashmir’s Bijbehara area of Anantnag district on January 12, 1936, he looked at the conflicted region of Kashmir through the prism of Indian ethos. 
 
Several times, he lifted the tricolor in the Valley knowing that it was life-threatening from him to do so. In a political career spanning nearly six decades, the veteran politician who entered the political field in the 1950s emerged as a rival power centre to the mighty Abdullahs, making friends with parties following conflicting ideologies to suit his political agenda. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Jammu-and-Kashmir-CM-Mufti-Mohammad-Sayeed-passes-away-at-79/articleshow/50478820.cms">ALSO READ: Jammu and Kashmir CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed passes away at 79</a> 
 
Childhood: Born in Baba Mohalla of Bijbehara, Sayeed had his early education at a local school and graduated from SP College, Srinagar. He went on to obtain a law degree and Master's degree in Arab History from Aligarh Muslim University. 
 
Late 1950s: He cut his political teeth early, having joined the Democratic National Conference of GM Sadiq in the late 1950s. Recognising the potential of the young lawyer, Sadiq appointed him as the District Convenor of the party. 
 
1962: Sayeed was elected to the state assembly from Bijbehara, the seat which he retained five years later. He was appointed a Deputy Minister by Sadiq, who by then had become Chief Minister. However, he fell out with the party a few years later and joined the Indian National Congress, a courageous but risky decision at that time given the unstinted support of most Kashmiris to Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who was in jail. Considered an astute organiser and administrator, Sayeed ensured that Congress not only got a foothold in the Valley but created pockets of staunch support for the party. 
 
1972: He became a Cabinet Minister and also Congress party's leader in the Legislative Council. He was made the state Congress president a couple of years later. As he rapidly grew in stature, Sayeed saw himself as the next Chief Minister of the state. However, all hopes he might have harboured of occupying the hot seat were dashed when the then Prime Minister <keyword id="6354478" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indira-Gandhi">Indira Gandhi</keyword> entered into an accord with Abdullah and facilitated his return as chief minister after a hiatus of 11 years, much against the wishes of Congress workers in general and Sayeed in particular. 
 
Not the one to give up easily, Sayeed engineered a coup of sorts ahead of the 1977 elections as Congress withdrew support to Abdullah's government. The aim was to have a Congress Chief Minister - which would have been Sayeed - in place for elections to control the official machinery but Governor LK Jha brought the state under Governor's rule. It was the first time that Jammu and Kashmir was brought under Governor's rule. . 
 
1977: Assembly election results killed Sayeed's dream of becoming the Chief Minister as Abdullah's National Conference came to power with a thumping majority. 
 
1986: As Farooq Abdullah warmed up to <keyword id="12596" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rajiv-Gandhi">Rajiv Gandhi</keyword> in 1986 to ensure his return as Chief Minister ahead of the 1987 assembly elections, Sayeed was shifted to Delhi and appointed as the Union Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation. <keyword id="222693" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-National">The National</keyword> Conference and Abdullahs have privately held the wily man from south Kashmir responsible for the intra-party rebellion against and subsequent dismissal of Farooq Abdullah by Governor Jagmohan in 1984. The power tussle between Farooq and his brother-in-law GM Shah led to a permanent estrangement and also saw the latter becoming Chief Minister with Congress support. 
Sayeed was a key player when Governor's Rule was imposed for the second time in the state in 1986. Shah's tenure also did not last long as Congress headed by Sayeed withdrew support to his government leading to imposition of Governor's rule for the second time in 1986. 
 
1987: Sayeed meanwhile quit as tourism minister in 1987 and later co-founded Jan Morcha with VP Singh, who had quit Congress over the Bofors scandal. 
 
1989: He won the Lok Sabha election from Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh as a <keyword id="123462" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Janata-Dal">Janata Dal</keyword> candidate and became Union Home Minister in VP Singh's cabinet. The high-points in the political journey of Sayeed, who would have turned 80 on January 12, was his being catapulted to the chair of free India's first Muslim Home Minister at a time when militancy broke out in Kashmir and, years later, becoming the Chief Minister of the restive state for a second time in 2015, heading a coalition with BJP, which had its first brush with power in the only Muslim-majority state. 
 
Sayeed's stint in the Home Ministry, at a time when militancy had begun to rear its ugly head in his home state, would, however, be most remembered for the kidnapping of his third daughter Rubaiya by JKLF. The militants demanded freeing five of their comrades in exchange for Rubaiya's freedom and let her off only after their demand had been met. The kidnapping and subsequent release of the militants, according to Sayeed's rivals, projected India as a "soft state" for the first time. He appointed Jagmohan as Governor despite protests by Farooq Abdullah, who resigned and the state came under Governor's rule again in 1990. 
 
1998: Towards the end of PV Narsimha Rao's tenure as Prime Minister, Sayeed returned to Congress fold with daughter Mehbooba Mufti. Sayeed won the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat in 1998 general elections, while Mehbooba became Congress MLA in 1996. 
While the state was brought under <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/A-Fractured-Verdict-Paves-Way-For-Governors-Rule/articleshow/45826306.cms">Governor's Rule in 2002 and 2014</a> due to Sayeed taking time to thrash out coalition dispensations with Congress and BJP respectively, it was his manoeuvrings that saw a democratically elected government give way to administration by the Raj Bhawan in 2008. 
 
1999: With his dream of becoming Chief Minister of the state still unfulfilled, Sayeed parted ways with Congress and floated a regional outfit - Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) - in 1999. Some of the things associated with the PDP are considered exemplary of Sayeed's political genius. 
The green flag and pen-inkpot election symbol of the PDP were lifted straight from the Muslim United Front (MUF) - the Jamaat-e-Islami-led conglomerate of anti-National Conference, anti-Congress parties in 1987 assembly elections. 
 
2002: Though MUF received wide public support in the Valley, it had only four seats to show. Its symbols found ready acceptance in the Valley as PDP made significant gains and won 16 seats in the 2002 assembly elections. Although way short of majority in the 87-member house, Sayeed managed to bargain with Congress and secure a three-year stint as the Chief Minister on rotational basis. Sayeed was sworn in as the ninth chief minister of state on November 2, 2002 - fulfilling a long-standing dream. 
 
2008: The wily politician, who enjoyed good relations across the political spectrum at national level, saw his PDP grow to 21 seats in 2008 Assembly elections but surprisingly decided to sit in the opposition. He withdrew support to coalition government headed by Congress' Ghulam Nabi Azad in July 2008 following widespread protests over the Amarnath land allotment row that pitted the people of Hindu-dominated Jammu region against the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley. 
 
2014: The youngest party in the state continued to gain in strength as it not only won all the three Lok Sabha seats in the Valley in 2014 general elections but also emerged as the single largest party in the state elections later in the year. Sayeed became the unanimous choice for Chief Minister when PDP and BJP reached an agreement to form a coalition government and took oath on March 1, 2015. 
 
(image credits: JKPDP website)

How this two-time J&K CM rose from being a
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Arms spending in Asia continues as India shells out another ₹46 billion

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