The water of the Ganges, the mouth of the third brother, in the impression of many of our people, the country of India seems to be not very reliable, and there is no dry goods in the mouthful of empty words. When it comes to bragging, few countries in the world today can compare with India.
For example, in their mouths, the most prosperous city in Asia is not Tokyo or Shanghai, but their own Mumbai. After ten years of construction, it is still just an empty shell of P15A, but it has to be said that it is comparable to 055.
Of course, the most outrageous thing is that in the war in 1962, the Indian army faced the peak of human light infantry, obviously being beaten to the point that they couldn't take care of themselves, and even Delhi was almost not saved, but they had to say that they were outnumbered and defeated.
All in all, in front of our country, although India has never won a fight, it must not lose in words. This kind of neighbor, which is harder than a duck's beak, is really hard to convince.
However, unreliable is unreliable, and we cannot completely ignore India because of this. After all, they are also the leaders of South Asia, and they can be regarded as a large country in today's world, and their strength cannot be underestimated.
We all know that our China is very large, and the land border starts from the mouth of the Yalu River in the east, to the Pamir Plateau in the west, and to the mouth of the Beilun River in the south, with a total length of about 2At 20,000 kilometers, it is one of the longest land borders in the world. And with such a long border, there is naturally no shortage of neighbors, as many as 14. Among China's 14 land neighbors, India is definitely the most powerful.
For example, in terms of military affairs, India should be regarded as one of the most capable countries in the world today, and it is basically among the best in the world's major military power rankings.
For example, in the latest global military power ranking given by the well-known military ** "GFP" (Global Firepower Index) of the United States, India is the fourth largest military power in the world, ranking second only to the traditional three giants of China, the United States and Russia, and higher than any old powers such as Britain, France, Germany and Japan.
From some of the military data of the ** statistics, we can find that India now has a very large military force.
For example, in terms of the number of troops, according to the data provided by the "GFP", India should currently have a standing active force of up to 1.45 million people, which is the second largest active force in the world. If other reserve forces such as the reserve forces are included, the total strength of India's armed forces is more than 5.13 million, which is also one of the highest in the world.
Another example is the equipment situation, according to the data provided by the "GFP", the Indian army should be equipped with a total of nearly 300 various types**, more than 2,200 military aircraft of various types, more than 4,600 tanks of various types, more than 3,400 artillery pieces of various types, more than 1,500 sets of various missile launch systems, and more than 100,000 military vehicles of various types.
It is obvious that there are many people and equipment, and the number of ** equipment currently owned by the Indian army is undoubtedly very considerable. With thousands of planes and tanks and 300 **, few countries in the world have this background. Coupled with the family background of India's million-strong army, I believe that no matter who encounters it, it is estimated that they will be frightened.
Of course, we often say that the number of soldiers is not in the number of soldiers, but in the quality, and whether a country's military strength is strong or not depends not only on the size of its army, but also on the overall quality level. If it is a group of rabble with no military literacy and extremely poor equipment, it is estimated that there is not much combat effectiveness.
Especially at a time when military science and technology are developing by leaps and bounds, in the face of a huge technological gap between the most advanced equipment, the numerical advantage alone cannot be made up. It is very likely that one fifth-generation aircraft is worth 100,000 of your soldiers, and one aircraft carrier can dominate the sea and sky.
Although India's current army is large, there are many shortcomings in the quality of the army, especially the overall level of equipment is relatively backward, and there are a lot of old antiques.
For example, among the fighters equipped by the Indian Air Force, there are hundreds of MiG-21s and Jaguars, which are products of the sixties and seventies of the last century, and should have been retired to museums in other countries a long time ago. Among the tanks equipped by the Indian Army, the T-72, the main battle tank born in the Cold War era, occupies the majority, and they even have some T-55, a classic car from the fifties and sixties of the last century.
As for the ** of the navy's equipment, such as the "Rajput" class destroyers and the "Kilo" class submarines, they are all equipment imported from India during the Soviet era, and most of them have been in service for more than 30 years. ** like this level, we have been retiring one after another 10 years ago.
There is no doubt that the "indiscriminate replenishment" of equipment has weakened the actual combat effectiveness of the Indian army to a large extent, making it not as powerful as it appears in terms of quantity and scale. But even so, the strength of the Indian army is still world-class. After all, there are still some good things in other people, and they are not completely useless.
Like in the air, in addition to a bunch of classic aircraft, the Indian Air Force is also equipped with hundreds of mainstream fourth-generation aircraft such as Su-30 and Rafale, and its overall combat power level exceeds that of the air forces of most countries in the world. On land, the Indian Army currently has the T-90, a third-generation main battle tank.
As for maritime equipment, India has aircraft carriers, amphibious ships, destroyers and nuclear submarines, although these ships are not the world's top level, but they can be regarded as the mainstream equipment at present.
It is worth mentioning that many of the current active equipment of the Indian army are made in India. Like the Arjun tank, the Tejas fighter, the ATV nuclear submarine, the P15A destroyer and so on. Although there are some problems with these equipment, either the cost of construction is inflated, or the construction time is so long that they cannot replace imported equipment as the main force of the Indian army.
But they have finally made things, which shows that India actually has a good military industrial foundation, and India's military industry is not as unbearable as everyone imagined. After all, there are only a handful of countries that can develop their own fighters, tanks, and even nuclear power equipment on their own.
Luxurious military power, coupled with a systematic defense industry, can be a few percent worse. Objectively speaking, if you look at the strength on paper, India is definitely qualified to be among the top five in the world. There may still be some gaps compared with the traditional three giants, but in the face of Britain and France, these powers can definitely be compared.
After all, India also has the ability to "mushroom", and Britain and France cannot play the asymmetric means of "dimensionality reduction strike", but can only compete with conventional strength. In terms of conventional military strength, with India's current background, it should not be afraid of any country below the Big Three.
In fact, compared to the strong performance in the military, the economy should be regarded as India's shortcoming. As a country with two-thirds of the population relying on agriculture for their livelihood, India has not yet broken away from the category of an agricultural country, and its economic development level is relatively backward.
According to the statistics of the World Bank, India's per capita GDP in 2022 is only more than 2,300 US dollars, which is less than one-fifth of our country's data in the same year, and even lower than many African countries. In addition, data shows that India has the largest number of poor people in the world, with 83 million people living below the extreme poverty line, and their daily living expenses are less than 2$15.
Of course, even if there are shortcomings, India's economic strength cannot be underestimated, they are still one of the world's leading economies, occupying a very key position in the global economic system.
According to the same World Bank statistics, India's total GDP in 2022 is as high as 3At 39 trillion US dollars, it is the fifth largest economy in the world, which is higher than that of the old developed countries such as Britain and France. In addition, India's GDP growth rate in 2022 is about 7.24%, far ahead of the world's major economies.
At the same time, we should see that India is one of the top five large economies in the world. It is not a "local tyrant" like Saudi Arabia who has a single economic industry and can only rely on selling resources to maintain the economy, but has a stable economic structure, a solid economic foundation, and a relatively complete economic system.
India's economic development is relatively comprehensive, basically every industry is involved, and it is of a certain scale. Even in the industrial sector that India is not good at, India has a certain foundation.
Especially after Modi shouted the development strategy of "make in India" ten years ago, a large number of multinational companies have entered India, invested and built factories, and brought a great impetus to India's industrial development.
At present, India has basically completed the system construction of many mainstream industries such as automobile manufacturing, mobile phone production, biopharmaceutical, etc., and has begun to gradually show its competitiveness in the world.
As the world's fastest-growing large economy, India's economy has many problems, such as poor infrastructure, weak industrial capacity, and job opportunities. But the potential they have is huge, and it's gaining momentum.
We need to know that India is the most populous country in the world today, with a population of more than 1.4 billion. Behind the huge population, there are many advantages of economic growth, such as a young labor force, a huge consumer market, and so on.
I think that China was able to achieve rapid economic growth and gradually change from a poor economy to the world's second largest economy, to a large extent, because of these dividends brought by the population. At present, India has similar conditions, so we have every reason to believe that India's economy will continue to grow at a high speed in the future, and even become another engine of world economic growth after China.
So in general, India's current economic performance may not be as good as the military, but the overall strength is not weak, enough to be called the world's top level. And in this way, India's national strength will not decline too much, at least it is also the ceiling under the P5. It is even possible to wrestle with countries at the second level of the P5, such as Britain and France.
In short, the current India is like Mr. Jin Yong's Qiu Qianren, he is invincible under the five permanent members, and one for one above the five permanent ones.