Army short of 11,387 officers: Antony

Posted: Monday , Jul 27, 2009 at 1503 hrs, New Delhi
The Indian Army is short of over 11,387 officers, Defence Minister A K Antony told the Lok Sabha on Monday. While the Navy was short of 1512 officers, the shortage in the Air Force was 1400, he said in a written reply. However, there is no significant shortage of Personnel Below Officer Ranks (PBORs) in the Armed Forces and nearly a lakh joined the army in that category in the last three years. As many as 5033 officers and 96,453 PBORs joined the Army in the last three years while 1209 officers and 6792 PBORs were enrolled by the Navy during the same period. As many as 1451 officers and 21,311 PBORs joined the Air Force in the last three years, Antony said.

During the last three years and in the current year, 3764 officers and 27,477 PBORs of Army, 842 officers and 126 PBORs of Navy and 893 officers and 3961 PBORs of Air Force have sought discharge/voluntary retirement, he said. Listing the steps taken to motivate the service personnel to continue in service and attract youth to join Armed Forces, Antony said all officers including those in Short Service Commission (SSC) were now eligible to hold substantive rank of Captain, Major and Lieutenant Colonel after two, six and 13 years of reckonable service respectively. The tenure of SSC officers has been increased from 10 years to 14 years, he said. Antony said 750 posts of Lt Colonel have been upgraded to Colonel after implementation of A V Singh Committee Report.
Army short of 11,387 officers: Antony

Comments
By: Major (Retd) Virendra Sharma, 28-Jul-2009
Today's army personnel (Officers and the personnel below officer's rank-PBOR) have much better service conditions. I am 1963 vintage ex-officer. At that time the Second Lieutenant started the basic salary at Rs.400/- pm. Today the rank of 2nd Lieutenant has been abolished and the starting basic salary is Rs 25,000/. Many other amenities have been increased, but the fact is that when in '60s there were very less avenues for young men like me, today is entirely different situation. Why to talk of other civilians, even the wards of the serving officers do not prefer to join the services because they are not very attractive. It is good that the service tenure of the SSCOs has been increased from 5 and 10 years to 14 years. I suggest that it should be increased to 20 years so that these officers are entitled to the pension. This will be a great step to attract people as the pension is seen as a secured future income.

Critical analysis of the Military after implementation of AV Singh Committee Recommendations
The quality is directly related to the quantity. While the world has flattened, the Indian Army has added to its hierarchical structure along with a significant increase in numbers. Protecting one’s fiefdom and enlarging its scope has been the hallmark of most government bodies and the army is no exception. The US army has been blindly aped by creating an Army Training Command more than 15 years ago, with no reduction in the training directorate at Delhi. South-western command and a new corps have been raised to ostensibly improve the operational effectiveness of the army. But many insiders believe that it is to create more avenues for promotions at the middle and higher levels. A new operational logistics and a public information directorate were also created in the recent past, adding to the existing layers of military bureaucratic structure. While all this has happened, there has been no talk of reduction in numbers ala the western armies. The US, UK and French military training schools are either outsourced or largely manned by civilian employees. No modern army worth its name runs its own logistics; their logistics is totally outsourced. The Indian army, on the other hand, still waxes eloquent about its teeth-to-tail ratio and takes pride in the large inventory of its ordnance corps – from a shoe nail to a tank.

Can we have a leaner army that is as effective an insurance for the nation’s future? Arguably, yes. General Malik reduced 50,000 in his tenure as the army chief, but it all went away in the aftermath of Kargil. The political willingness to correct this anomaly is distinctly lacking. After all, there is safety in numbers. The annual report of the ministry of defence (2006-07) puts forth this grandiose justification in buckram prose:
"India’s national security environment is determined by a complex interplay of its geographical attributes, historical legacy, and socio-economic circumstances as well as regional and global developments...bla bla..."
Extract from:
The Indian Army Part 3