For the Arms Industry, India Is a Hot Market

One question left unanswered at Defexpo 2010 was whether a country in which one-third of the adults are illiterate and 43% of children are malnourished should spend so much on weapons. India's central government spent $4.5 billion on education in 2008 — about the same amount that it plans to spend on 197 new helicopters. A handful of protesters picketed outside the gates of the exhibition hall on opening day, but they drew little notice. India's attention is firmly focused on what a defense-company representative called the "quality gap" between its weapons and those of its neighbors, Pakistan and China. The gaps at home will have to wait.