India puts 0.65% of GDP into research, China 2.58%: where India really stands against the world in tech, defence and youth

2. Selling technology to the world

Country	High-tech exports	High-tech, % of manufactured exports
India	$54.1 bn (2024)	18.6 (2024)
China	$856.8 bn (2024)	26.3 (2024)
United States	$232.9 bn (2024)	24.3 (2024)
European Union	$966.7 bn (2024)	20.6 (2024)
Japan	$102.5 bn (2024)	17.6 (2024)
Russia	$10.6 bn (2021)	9.7 (2021)
South Korea	$216.2 bn (2024)	36.3 (2024)
United Kingdom	$84.8 bn (2024)	29.2 (2024)
World	$3.58 trn (2023)	24.7 (2024)

India’s high-technology exports were $54.1 bn in 2024, or 18.6% of its manufactured exports. China’s were $856.8 bn — about 15.8 times larger.

3. Defence: spending, imports and people

Country	Military spending	% of GDP	Arms imports (SIPRI TIV)	Arms exports (SIPRI TIV)	Armed forces personnel
India	$92.1 bn (2025)	2.30 (2025)	2.86 bn (2025)	81 mn (2025)	3.07 mn (2020)
China	$335.5 bn (2025)	1.72 (2025)	207 mn (2025)	880 mn (2025)	2.54 mn (2020)
United States	$954.4 bn (2025)	3.12 (2025)	745 mn (2025)	13.98 bn (2025)	1.40 mn (2020)
European Union	$460.6 bn (2025)	2.18 (2025)	9.52 bn (2025)	8.90 bn (2025)	1.91 mn (2020)
Japan	$62.2 bn (2025)	1.41 (2025)	1.72 bn (2025)	28 mn (2025)	2,61,000 (2020)
Russia	$190.4 bn (2025)	7.50 (2025)	129 mn (2025)	1.94 bn (2025)	1.45 mn (2020)
South Korea	$47.8 bn (2025)	2.60 (2025)	222 mn (2025)	2.02 bn (2025)	5,69,000 (2020)
United Kingdom	$89.0 bn (2025)	2.35 (2025)	609 mn (2025)	702 mn (2025)	1,53,000 (2020)
World	$2.86 trn (2025)	2.48 (2025)	33.33 bn (2025)	33.54 bn (2025)	27.41 mn (2020)

SIPRI’s trend-indicator value (TIV) measures the volume of major weapons transferred, not their price — use it to compare countries and years, not as money.

• India’s arms imports (2.86 bn TIV in 2025) are about 35.3 times its arms exports (81 mn). The government’s own releases below show the push to build more at home.
• The US spent about 10.4 times what India did, and China about 3.6 times.

4. What India is building now (official releases)

These are recent Government of India announcements. Each is a claim by the ministry concerned, linked to the original release.

AI, semiconductors and computing

• Indigenous AI Vision chip (Project VeerAI) — Technology Development Board agreement with BigEndian Semiconductors, Bengaluru, for ₹130 crore support from the RDI Fund to develop an indigenous AI Vision SoC. (PIB, 5 Oct 2026)
• National Supercomputing Mission — 40 supercomputers delivering 68 petaflops as of September 2026, with indigenous servers, software, cooling and networking. (PIB, 4 Oct 2026)
• 6G target — Ministry of Communications says India targets 10% of global 6G patents and standards. (PIB, 8 Oct 2026)

Quantum and secure communication

• First 5.56 km free-space quantum key distribution link — QNu Labs with BISAG-N and IIT Gandhinagar demonstrated India’s first free-space QKD link at 5.56 km (field trial 27–28 September). (PIB, 3 Oct 2026)
• Quantum-secure technology — ₹150 crore RDI support to QNu Labs for a ₹300 crore project to strengthen indigenous quantum-secure technology. (PIB, 16 Oct 2026)

Space

• Space economy — Valued at around $9 billion now, expected to reach $40–45 billion in seven to eight years, the minister said. (PIB, 17 Oct 2026)
• New-age space technologies — Reusable launch vehicles, electric, green and nuclear propulsion and in-orbit servicing; through SpaDeX India became the fourth country to achieve autonomous docking in orbit. (PIB, 28 Oct 2026)
• Green propulsion — ₹116 crore RDI support to Manastu Space, Navi Mumbai, for indigenous green propulsion technology. (PIB, 26 Oct 2026)

Defence and military technology

• DRDO High-Altitude Platform — Indigenous HAPS reached 21 km above sea level and stayed at 20 km for more than 30 minutes in a flight trial. (PIB, 6 Oct 2026)
• BrahMos fire-control systems for Navy ships — ₹661.50 crore contract with BrahMos Aerospace under Buy (Indian-IDDM), with at least 68% indigenous content. (PIB, 6 Oct 2026)
• GSAT-7C satellite and Varunastra torpedoes — Contracts worth about ₹4,106 crore, including ₹2,563 crore for the indigenously built GSAT-7C communication satellite for the Air Force. (PIB, 15 Oct 2026)
• Submarine Air Independent Propulsion — DRDO’s indigenous AIP energy module, which extends diesel-electric submarines’ underwater endurance, entered Setting to Work Phase-2. (PIB, 24 Oct 2026)
• Fleet Support Ship ‘Surya’ — First indigenous Fleet Support Ship (FSS-1) launched at Hindustan Shipyard, Visakhapatnam. (PIB, 6 Oct 2026)
• INS Mangrol — Third Mahe-class anti-submarine warfare shallow water craft commissioned in Mumbai. (PIB, 12 Oct 2026)
• INS Samarthak — First of the indigenous Multi-Purpose Vessels commissioned into the Navy. (PIB, 16 Oct 2026)

Biotech, medicine and clean energy

• AI-driven drug discovery — ₹86 crore RDI support to Peptris Technologies, Bengaluru, for AI-driven drug discovery and development. (PIB, 12 Oct 2026)
• Indigenous 32-slice CT scanner — TDB support to Panacea Medical Technologies, Malur, to develop and commercialise an indigenous 32-slice CT scanner. (PIB, 15 Oct 2026)
• Green hydrogen — National Green Hydrogen Mission supports domestic manufacturing, production, demand and certification for fertiliser, refining, steel and transport. (PIB, 28 Oct 2026)

5. India’s youth today

Country	Youth unemployment (15–24), %	Youth NEET, %	Tertiary enrolment, % gross	Internet users, %
India	16.0 (2025)	25.6 (2025)	34.4 (2025)	70.0 (2025)
China	15.8 (2025)	—	76.9 (2024)	91.6 (2025)
United States	9.3 (2025)	11.6 (2025)	79.4 (2022)	94.7 (2024)
European Union	16.2 (2025)	9.4 (2025)	79.5 (2024)	—
Japan	3.9 (2025)	3.1 (2019)	64.5 (2023)	85.5 (2024)
Russia	7.6 (2025)	6.7 (2025)	60.4 (2024)	94.4 (2024)
South Korea	6.7 (2025)	—	111.9 (2024)	97.9 (2024)
United Kingdom	14.6 (2025)	14.4 (2025)	80.4 (2023)	95.5 (2024)
World	13.4 (2025)	—	43.6 (2024)	73.6 (2025)

• Higher education: India’s gross tertiary enrolment ratio is 34.4% (2025), against a world figure of 43.6%.
• Online: 70.0% of Indians use the internet (2025); world 73.6%.
• Not studying, not working: about one in 4 young Indians is NEET. This is the clearest gap between India’s huge young population and the skills the technologies above need.

6. The next 10 years: what the projections say

Projections from the World Bank’s Population Estimates and Projections (UN World Population Prospects based). They are projections, not forecasts of policy success.

Country	Working-age (15–64) share, 2026 → 2036	Aged 65+, 2026 → 2036
India	68.6% → 69.1%	7.6% → 10.1%
China	70.1% → 66.9%	15.1% → 23.7%
United States	64.3% → 62.4%	18.8% → 21.7%
European Union	63.1% → 60.2%	22.9% → 27.2%
Japan	58.8% → 56.7%	30.2% → 33.2%
Russia	64.9% → 65.8%	18.4% → 20.6%
South Korea	68.7% → 61.8%	21.4% → 30.5%
United Kingdom	63.3% → 62.4%	19.9% → 22.7%
World	65.3% → 65.0%	10.6% → 13.4%

• India’s population is projected to grow from 1.477 billion in 2026 to 1.588 billion in 2036.
• While China, Japan, South Korea and Europe age, India will still have a large and slightly growing working-age share. Whether this becomes an advantage depends on the numbers in sections 1 and 5 — research spending, researchers, enrolment and youth jobs. The data does not tell us how those will change; we will update this page as new figures come in.

What the data cannot tell you

• Missiles, bombs and weapon quality: there is no official, comparable international dataset ranking countries’ missiles or weapon systems. We report spending, arms trade and personnel only — not claims about who is “stronger”.
• AI and software: there is no official cross-country ranking of AI capability from a government or UN body comparable to the figures above. We list India’s official AI and semiconductor projects instead.
• Biotech and medicine: research spending, researchers, patents and high-tech exports (which include pharmaceuticals) are the comparable measures; we do not rank countries’ medical science beyond them.

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Sources: World Bank, World Development Indicators — GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS, SP.POP.SCIE.RD.P6, IP.PAT.RESD, IP.JRN.ARTC.SC, TX.VAL.TECH.CD, TX.VAL.TECH.MF.ZS, MS.MIL.XPND.CD, MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS, MS.MIL.MPRT.KD, MS.MIL.XPRT.KD, MS.MIL.TOTL.P1, SL.UEM.1524.ZS, SL.UEM.NEET.ZS, SE.TER.ENRR, IT.NET.USER.ZS; Population Estimates and Projections (source 40) — SP.POP.1564.TO.ZS, SP.POP.65UP.TO.ZS, SP.POP.TOTL; Press Information Bureau releases linked above. “#x of y” compares only the countries in these tables (the EU and World aggregates excluded); it is not a world ranking.