Essay on defence should be given more priority than development.

India ranks 11th in the 2002 list of major spenders on defence, spending US $12.9 billion, ahead of Russia at $11.4 billion. India's world ranking in the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Index (HDI) is 124 out of 174. Clearly, military prowess isn't helping the poorest people in the country advance very much economically. Development experts have argued repeatedly that some of the funding now 'wasted' on militarization should instead be spent on development, but the other side has argued that security is a legitimate concern too, and spending on that cannot be scaled back.