How to import Maven dependency in Android Studio/IntelliJ?

I am using the springframework android artifact as an example

open build.gradle

Then add the following at the same level as apply plugin: ‘android’

apply plugin: 'android'

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
   compile group: 'org.springframework.android', name: 'spring-android-rest-template', version: '1.0.1.RELEASE'
}

you can also use this notation for maven artifacts

compile 'org.springframework.android:spring-android-rest-template:1.0.1.RELEASE'

Your IDE should show the jar and its dependencies under ‘External Libraries’
if it doesn’t show up try to restart the IDE (this happened to me quite a bit)

here is the example that you provided that works

buildscript { 
    repositories { 
        maven { 
            url 'repo1.maven.org/maven2'; 
        } 
    } 
    dependencies { 
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:0.4' 
    } 
} 
apply plugin: 'android'

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies { 
    compile files('libs/android-support-v4.jar') 
    compile group:'com.squareup.picasso', name:'picasso', version:'1.0.1' 
} 
android { 
    compileSdkVersion 17 
    buildToolsVersion "17.0.0" 
    defaultConfig { 
        minSdkVersion 14 
        targetSdkVersion 17 
    } 
}