In a major step to improve the quality of officers following recent incidents of face-offs between them and jawans, Army Chief General Bikram Singh has asked Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad to recommend changes in 60-year-old selection procedure of officers.
The elite institute in collaboration with Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun is now conducting studies to change selection process of young men and women through Services Selection Board (SSB).
The two institutes will focus on improving tests to find Officer like Qualities(OlQ) amongst candidates besides other tests like physical fitness, psychological analysis and group discussion, officials said here on Friday.
IIM will complete the study in one year’s time and will give its recommendations to the Army and government.
The Army Chief sought these changes in the wake of officers and jawans coming to blows in three incidents in the last two years indicating failure of command and officers not able to take decisions on ground, they said.
IIM was also asked to suggest ways to reduce the time taken to conduct tests by SSB which are generally spread over five days.
If a candidate clears these tests, he is asked to stay back at the recruiting centre for another three to four days for detailed medical examination and many candidates do not want spend so many days due to their college or school examinations. The SSBs can undertake only 60 batches in a year due to the lengthy procedure and the study would recommend changes to shorten the procedure for enhancing the number of candidates to be tried for selection.
The rate of in-take is also very low with only four to five per cent of the candidates clearing the process and the study will also at changes in improving the induction rate, they said. At present, the Army faces shortage of more than 12,000 officers at the cutting edge level which means actual fighting.
About the scope of the study, officials said it will review the techniques used in the selection and suggest refinement in it with alternative tools.
Officer-like qualities tested in the candidates for the SSB process would also be reviewed by the study and they will be made relevant as per changing socio-economic environment.
The expert panel will also review the officer selection process of some foreign armies including the US and the UK besides other major forces in the world, officials said adding efforts are on to make selection fair and more transparent.
BTech Naval officers on deck!
The Navy will get its first batch of officers with BTech degrees on Saturday after the service made it mandatory four years ago that all new officers will have this qualification to command hi-tech warships and aircraft now getting inducted.
This first batch of 60 officers will pass out from Naval Academy, Ezhimala, Kerala and Defence Minister A K Antony will take salute. These officers completed the four-year degree course awarded by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, officials said on Friday adding these cadets were selected through Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination.
Explaining significance of this event, they said Navy is rapidly modernising its armada with the induction of indigenously built and imported warships, aircraft and submarines and need officers well versed with latest technology developments and able to operate in network centric environment.
With rapidly changing ways fighting modern war, technology advances provide near real time situational awareness and reach, accuracy and lethality of weapons have attained unprecedented levels.
The complexity of modern day warfare together with induction of cutting edge technology in the Navy necessitated the need for highly trained men and women to operate, maintain and gainfully exploit state of the art platforms, they said.
Giving an example, officials said once a warship leaves the shore on long sea sortie it is on its own and if any fault is detected mid-sea, the new officers will be able to detect and rectify the malfunction as they are familiar with new systems.
As regards the B.Tech curriculum, they said it was drawn up in conjunction with JNU and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). B Tech training, at present, is imparted at the Naval Academy in two disciplines including electronics and communication engineering (ECE) and Mechanical Engineering (ME). On completion of a common curriculum in the first two years, cadets bifurcate into these two streams for the remaining two years.
On the issue of shortage of officers, they said as against the sanctioned strength of 10,000, the Navy, at present, has 8,000 officers.
The sanctioned strength will go up to 13,000 by year 2027, officials said adding the shortage will continue even then due to continuous of bigger warships, submarines and aircraft.