Indian Defence Ministry emerges as world’s largest employer

According to a recent research carried out by the German data and statistics firm Statista, the Indian Defence Ministry (MoD) stood out as the world’s largest employer boasting of employing over 29 lakh personnel under it combining the services of active personnel, reservists, and civilian staff.

India’s MoD employs a massive 29.2 lakh people, which was closely followed by the United States Department of Defence with 29.1 lakh members. The third on the list was the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which does not include civilian positions and employs around 2.5 million people.

As for the private companies, Walmart had the maximum number of employees with 23 lakh people followed by Amazon which houses 16 lakh employees. The famous electronic product giant Foxconn also found its name on the list by employing 12.9 lakh individuals.

Global military expenditure is at a constant high with the top three employers being defence organizations from India, the US and, China. Concomitant with the list of top employers, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published the list of the five largest spenders in 2021 for military usage which were the United States, China, India, the United Kingdom, and Russia. The five nations together accounted for 62 per cent of the expenditure.

In 2021, the US spent USD 801 billion while China spent USD 293 billion. India spent USD76.6 billion and in its Union Budget of 2022-23, increased the defence budget to ₹5.25 lakh crore from last year’s allocation of ₹4.78 lakh crore with a focus on procurement of weapons and military platforms from domestic manufacturers.