India has been ranked fourth in the world in the finalized Global Firepower Ranking conducted recently. According to the Global Fire Power Index, India comes on the fourth place after the United States, Russia and China. India once again has managed to retain its place in the top five military powers of the world all thanks to its large number of personnel and the quality of arms and ammunition it possesses. The ranking is given after close scrutiny of over 55 individual factors which encompass each and every aspect of a nation’s defence and offence potential. The Global Fire Power ranking allows for various nations to get stock of their relative strength in the world today. Global Fire Power ranking does not solely depend on the number of personnel and the number of weapons a country has but also the diversity it possesses. It is therefore a huge deal for India to clinch the fourth place in the ranking which was prepared after assessing the strength of a total of 136 countries. India’s neighbour and a country which has often been on bad terms with India, Pakistan incidentally has come much lower on the 17th position in the list.
Pakistan for all the noise and hoopla it wishes to create in the world has been ranked much lower than India, 13 points south to be precise. In the ranking it has come after countries like Egypt (12th), Iran (13th) and Indonesia (15th). Indonesia for example is located in the same Asia Pacific region and is also a South East Asian country which is much smaller in both land area and population than Pakistan. Pakistan, in the Global Fire Power ranking, has come between Israel and North Korea which occupy the 16th and 18th spot in the list respectively.
A detailed comparison between the strength of India and Pakistan will shed some light on why the nuclear capable country has been ranked so low. India has an active military of 13,62,500 personnel, while Pakistan has just 6,37,000 active personnel on duty. There is also a difference between the capacity of the Air forces of the two countries, India has 2102 aircrafts, 676 fighters, 809 attack aircrafts while Pakistan has to remain content with just 320 fighter and 410 attack aircrafts. When it comes to battle tanks, India again has the edge with 4426 combat tanks, 6704 armoured fighting vehicles and 7414 towed artillery guns. Pakistan, on the other hand, has just 2,182 combat tanks, 2,604 armoured fighting vehicles and1, 240 towed artillery. This is not the end because there is also a staggering difference between the two country’s naval power. India has a staggering advantage in the sea with an aircraft carrier, 11 destroyers and 15 submarines while Pakistan has no aircraft carriers or destroyers and has to remain content with just 5 submarines.
It also must be taken into consideration that there is a huge gap between the defence budgets of the two countries, while India spends over $51 billion annually that of Pakistan is just $7 billion. This ranking should serve as an eye opener for the politicians from Pakistan who go about proclaiming war with India. Balance of power in the South Asia rests with India and should remain so if peace in the region is to be maintained, it is therefore necessary that it keeps updating its defence capabilities in the days to come.