NEW DELHI: In a major organisational change the Indian Army plans to induct specialists into the force through various schemes including the Territorial Army and Regular Entry Schemes.
The advertisements for the same are expected to be published next year. The focus is also towards developing clusters for working on innovations on niche technology. The details related to the job role and exact vacancy is being worked out, Lieutenant General Rakesh Kapoor, Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Information System and Coordination) said on Friday.
"The plan is to induct specialists/ domain experts to work in the niche areas like cyber security, perception management, linguists etc and the advertisements with details will be out by next year." he said while talking to the media.
The Indian Army has three DCOAss. Initially, the advertisement is expected to be out in a month for the eligible youth to join the Territorial Army. The regular entry schemes are the National Defence Academy (NDA), Combined Defence Services (CDS) exam and Officers Training Academy (OTA) exam. It will be done in small numbers, to begin with.
Territorial Army (TA), as the army defines it, is a part of the Regular Army and its present role is to relieve the Regular Army from static duties and assist Civil Administration in dealing with natural calamities and maintenance of essential services in situations where the life of the communities is affected or the security of the country is threatened and to provide units for Regular Army as and when required.
TA has already inducted five Chinese (Mandarin) language experts, along with 12 more inducted through the other routes. As part of the larger scheme "the candidates will be inducted both as officers and men and will be working in the niche areas having the opportunity to get promoted to the higher ranks in the same role".
In addition, domain specialists will also be inducted into the Indian Army through regular recruitment routes. Advertisement for the same is expected to come out soon.
The Indian Army, following tenure-based posting diligently, is undergoing a major transformation right from induction, training, structure and organisational. This will help the specialists to stay at the place of their posting for long without their promotion getting affected.
"Mechanism is being worked out so that they occupy these billets," said General Kapoor. The Indian Army, as part of the overall structural changes, is also creating branches with officers in charge to work towards technology innovation together with the academia, and institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), other Engineering Colleges, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and academia.
The Indian Army has entered into the decade of Transformation by declaring the year 2023 as 'Year of Transformation' and 2024 as 'Year of Technology Absorption' to align its rank and file towards the Transformative initiatives being undertaken.
The Indian Army has formed 16 technology clusters which are headed by senior officers, working under a timeline.
"We have officers driving these clusters with their regular progress report going upto the Army Chief," said DCOAS Kapoor. There are short-term road maps with six-month progress being analysed and there also are certain roadmaps stretching up to three years. The Deputy Chief talked about issues concerning the supply chain and limitations in acquiring the niche technologies that the other countries will not share.
The Technology Clusters include Cyber, Space, Quantum, 5G/ 6G, Internet of Things (IOT), Directed Energy Weapons, Digitisation for Applications and Augmented Reality (AR)/ Virtual Reality (VR). The other clusters are Artificial Intelligence (AI)/ Machine Learning (ML) / Deep Learning, Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) and Drones, Counter Unmanned Autonomous Systems (UAS), UAS, BlockChain Technology, Loitering Munitions, 3D Printing and Robotics. Modern technology is changing the character of conflict and a lot of these technologies are available within our country, the Lt Gen Rakesh Kapoor said.