Armed Forces Facing Shortage of Personnel

A.K.Antony, the Minister for Defence, has announced that the Indian Armed Forces – Army, Navy, and Air Force – have a shortage of about 13,000 officers and 53,700 personnel.

A.K.Antony

The Army is the wing suffering the most of this shortage: it is short of over 10,000 officers and over 32,000 personnel below the rank of officers. The corresponding figures for Navy are nearly 2,000 and over 14,000 while the corresponding figures for Air Force are nearly 1000 and about 7,000. The Minister said that some of the of the major reasons or vacancies in the armed forces are “accretion in force level from time to time, availability of multiple and lucrative career avenues”, “stringent selection criteria” and “difficult service conditions coupled with a perceived high degree of risk”. Mr.Antony said that steps – like implementing the recommendations of the Sixth Central pay Commission to improve the pay structure, implementing the Married Accommodation Project to provide additional family accommodation, and improving the prospects for promotion in the armed forces – are being taken to make it more attractive for young people to join the Armed Forces.

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