Indian Armed Forces is short of 9,000 officers, says MOS Subhash Bhamre

The minister said recruitment in the Armed Forces was a continuous process and the government was taking a number of measures to reduce the shortages

The Indian Army, the Navy and Air Force are facing a shortage of more than 9,000 officers, the government said on Wednesday. The Indian Army alone is short of 7,298 officers, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. He said the Army has an authorised strength of 49,933 officers but as on January 1, 2018, it had only 42,635. The Indian Army is considered the second largest army in the world with 1.4 million officers and others, according to the World Atlas 2018 report.

The Indian Navy has a sanctioned strength of 11,352 officers but has only 9,746 - a shortage of 1,606, according to data as on July 1, 2018. Similarly, the Air Force's authorised strength of officers is 12,584 but it has only 12,392 and is short of 192. The minister said recruitment in the Armed Forces was a continuous process and the government was taking a number of measures to reduce the shortages.

"These include sustained image projection, participation in career fairs and exhibitions and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career."

The government, he said, had as well taken various steps to make Armed Forces' jobs attractive including improvement in promotion prospects. "To attract youth including the rural youth to join the Armed Forces various steps are taken such as giving wide publicity to recruitment in the Armed Forces through advertisement in print and audio-visual media.

"Recruitment of Personnel Below Officers Ranks (PBORs) in the Army is carried out through open rally system being conducted regularly throughout the country. Efforts are made to cover the entire country including remote and tribal areas."

In the Navy, the minister said, regular recruitment drives are also undertaken for recruitment of sailors. Recruitment of Airmen in the Air Force is done on all India basis through scheduled selection tests as recruitment rallies are also conducted in different parts of the country including tribal areas.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!