Indian Army short of 12,500 officers: Antony

malluowl

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Indian Army short of 12,500 officers: Antony


New Delhi, Dec 1 (IANS) Defence Minister A.K. Antony Wednesday said that the Indian Army was short of over 12,500 officers but this is not a discernible decreasing trend.

'No discernible decreasing trend in the number of officers in the army has been observed. In the army, sanctioned strength of officers is 47,864 with a shortage of 12,510,' Antony told parliament.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, he said the shortage of officers in the armed forces was 'partly' attributable to accretions from time to time, tough selection procedures, difficult service conditions coupled with perceived high degree of risk involved in a service career.

Antony said that measures had been taken to reduce shortages in the officers' cadre.

'All officers including those in Short Service Commission (SSC) are now eligible to hold substantive rank of captain, major and lieutenant colonel after two, six and 13 years of reckonable service respectively,' he said.

The tenure of SSC officers has been increased from 10 years to 14 years.

The armed forces have also undertaken a sustained image projection and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career.
 

Tshering22

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^^ If so many scandals keep happening in defence where the officers don't get state of the art weapons to defend themselves and the country, what does Anothony expect? Today's soldiers don't just need assault rifles alone but protective gear for joints, chest, groin, head and other vital areas which should be light, moisture/waterproof and must be easily portable. While a few 100s are armed with these, the vast majority still has virtually nothing to defend themselves against either suicidal terrorists who are themselves expendable or against advanced enemies like PLA most of which is armed with similar stuff.

How will the youth be willing to join something based on patriotism alone? Is it fair for us to ask them to join with such dangerous and discouraging conditions for the common soldier? I even wonder whether this F-INSAS is not an eyewash for some other multi-billion scam and solely have trust in TATA advanced Systems' participation and ethics.
 

ace009

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Sadly, like the IAS, IPS and most other GOI services, the military is also stuck in the 1950-1960 mindset. Not a fault of the common soldier as much as the fault of the civilian and military leadership. Be it training, equipment, infrastructure or leadership, the military is not being upgraded sufficiently. Most of the so-called "modernization" are superficial and are meant more for political and financial gains than for effectiveness.
 

rcscwc

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Indian Army short of 12,500 officers: Antony


New Delhi, Dec 1 (IANS) Defence Minister A.K. Antony Wednesday said that the Indian Army was short of over 12,500 officers but this is not a discernible decreasing trend.

'No discernible decreasing trend in the number of officers in the army has been observed. In the army, sanctioned strength of officers is 47,864 with a shortage of 12,510,' Antony told parliament.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, he said the shortage of officers in the armed forces was 'partly' attributable to accretions from time to time, tough selection procedures, difficult service conditions coupled with perceived high degree of risk involved in a service career.

Antony said that measures had been taken to reduce shortages in the officers' cadre.

'All officers including those in Short Service Commission (SSC) are now eligible to hold substantive rank of captain, major and lieutenant colonel after two, six and 13 years of reckonable service respectively,' he said.

The tenure of SSC officers has been increased from 10 years to 14 years.

The armed forces have also undertaken a sustained image projection and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career.
To say that our youth are deterede by tough service conditions and "war risks" is like doubting them. Witness, only 1 in 10 candidate is selected, other 9 were not detered. If tough conditions are to be blamed then the sons of miliotary officers should be the last to volanteer. Hehe. They have a "knack" of getting selected.

Bottleneck is limited capacity of training facilities like IMA.
 

Yusuf

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This figure of 12,000 officers short was there when I was in college a good 15 years back. So it means the situation has improved that the same figure has been maintained. I think its the result of the short service commission and also the increase in pay levels.
 

ace009

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I don't know about the improvements. 12,000 still seems like a huge number. By percentage it may have gone down from 20% to 15% (numbers totally pulled out of my head), but it is still a lot of shortfall.
 

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