NEW DELHI: India has dropped to the second position behind Saudi Arabia among the world’s largest arms importers after remaining at the top for almost a decade, as per the latest data on international arms transfers released by a global think-tank, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), on Monday.But this may not accurately reflect the actual situation because SIPRI itself says its statistical data on arms transfers “relates to actual deliveries of major conventional weapons”. So, several mega defence deals inked by India, for which the deliveries are yet to begin, have apparently not been considered in the analysis.These deals range from 36 Rafale fighters for Rs 59,000 crore from France to five squadrons of S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile systems for Rs 40,000 crore from Russia. While the Rafales will be delivered in the November 2019-April 2022 timeframe, the S-400 squadrons will come between October 2020 and April 2023.India’s continuance at the very top in the global arms import rankings, be it first or second, once again reinforces the persisting failure to build a strong indigenous defence industrial base (DIB), which can make the country strategically vulnerable if supplies are choked in times of conflict.Though the NDA government has pushed the “Make in India” policy to some extent, the fact also remains that no major defence production project in fields ranging from fighters, helicopters and minesweepers to infantry combat vehicles and diesel-electric submarines has actually taken off in the last five years, as was reported earlier by TOI.As per SIPRI data, India was the world’s second largest arms importer in 2014-2018, accounting for 9.5% of the global total, just behind Saudi Arabia with 12%. The others included Egypt (5.1%), Australia (4.6%), Algeria (4.4%) and China (4.2%), UAE (3.7%), Iraq (3.7%), South Korea (3.1%), Vietnam (2.9%) and Pakistan (2.7%). The largest arms suppliers to India, in turn, were Russia (58%), Israel (15%) and USA (12%).“India’s imports decreased by 24% between 2009-2013 and 2014-2018, partly due to delays in deliveries of arms produced under licence from foreign suppliers, such as combat aircraft ordered from Russia and submarines from France,” said SIPRI.IAF has so far inducted around 250 of the 272 Sukhoi-30MKIs ordered from Russia, with the bulk of them being produced by defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics for over Rs 55,000 crore. The Navy, in turn, has inducted only one of the six French Scorpene submarines being built at Mazagon Docks for over Rs 23,000 crore. Both the projects are running over three years behind schedule.In sharp contrast, apart from being the sixth largest arms importer, China has also emerged as the world’s fifth largest exporter (after US, Russia, France and Germany) by assiduously focusing on indigenous defence production and reverse-engineering of top-notch military technology.China, for instance, has become a big-time exporter of UCAVs (unmanned combat aerial vehicles), supplying 153 of them to 13 countries. Overall, China’s biggest arms clients are Pakistan (37%), Bangladesh (16%) and Algeria (11%).