Armed forces face shortage of over 9,000 officers: govt

The Indian army, navy and air force are facing a shortage of more than 9,000 officers, the government said yesterday.The army alone is short of 7,298 officers, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament.He said the army has an authorised strength of 49,933 officers but as on January 1, 2018 it had only 42,635.India has the second largest army in the world with 1.4mn 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 also 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 advertisements in print and audio-visual media.“The 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 an India basis through scheduled selection tests and recruitment rallies are also conducted in different parts of the country including in tribal areas.The minister also said India was considering the military use of Artificial Intelligence for national security and military strategic purposes and the government was studying a report recommending the duel use of technology in aviation, naval, land systems, cyber, nuclear and biological warfare.Bhamre said the defence ministry has initiated the process of preparing the defence forces in their use of Artificial Intelligence and leveraging India’s capabilities in machine learning sectors.This, he said, has a potential to fuel technology driven economic growth and provide military superiority.To study the strategic implications of Artificial Intelligence on national security, a multi-stakeholder task force comprising the government, services, academia, industry, professionals and start-ups was set up in February this year.The group led by Natarajan Chandrasekharan, chairman of Tata Sons, was asked to prepare a road map for Artificial Intelligence for national security purposes.The team submitted its report on June 30 after studying the level of Artificial Intelligence development in India in general and specifically in the context of defence needs.The group has made recommendations relating to making India a significant power of Artificial Intelligence for both defensive and offensive needs, Bhamre said.The group has also made recommendations for policy and institutional interventions required to regulate and encourage robust Artificial Intelligence-based technologies for the defence sector in the country.Considering that most Artificial Intelligence work is happening in the private sector, it has also made recommendations to work with start-ups and commercial industry in the field of use of Artificial Intelligence for defence purposes.