How is the Indian Army Tackling the Shortage of Officers in its Ranks?

To meet the shortage of officers in the army, a plan is being made to open a new service selection board as per breaking news in Hindi and other sources. Three new service selection boards will be opened by the end of this year. At present there are 12 service selection boards in the country. 

New Service Selection Boards (SSB) will be opened to meet the shortage of officers in the Indian Army. Indian Army is working on this and is preparing to open three new SSBs by the end of this year. In total there are currently 12 boards which will soon become 15. 

As per aaj ka taja samachar there will be only four selection centres and new boards will be under the operational control of some of the existing boards. The Army currently has four selection centres, which are Jalandhar in north zone, Bhopal in central zone, Bengaluru in south zone and Allahabad in east zone. 

Source: CareerPower

Under which of existing centres will the new boards operate?

According to Army sources quoted by breaking news in Hindi, the three new SSBs that are going to be opened will operate under the operational control of the Jalandhar, Bengaluru and Bhopal centres respectively. 

At present there are three boards under the Bhopal Selection Centre of the Indian Army and with the addition of a new board the Bhopal centre will now have control over four boards. 

There are two boards each under Bengaluru and Jalandhar SSB centres and in both, one more board each will be opened under their respective operational control. 

Under the Allahabad SSB centre there are already five boards and that could be the reason why no further centres have been assigned to it. At present there is a shortage of about 9,900 officers in the army and it is mostly at the company commander level. 

According to aaj ka taja samachar quoting army sources, this shortage is gradually reducing and will reduce further in the coming time and this is because the level of attrition is quite low at present. 

Attrition refers to how many people leave the army for multiple legitimate reasons, including retirement. The number of officers retiring from the army is less than the recruitment.

More SSB centres will result in more officers joining the army 

The Indian Army official quoted on breaking news in Hindi, said that having more service selection boards obviously allows more candidates to be screened and interviewed for selection. This will effectively remove the shortage of officers in the army. 

More officers will be required to evaluate more candidates and hence more officers are being trained for the same. Every year more than 10 lakh youth apply for the Indian Army officers’ role and around 80,000 were shortlisted for SSB interview. 

In 2020-21, 1,250 youth cleared SSB and attended pre-training; in 2022, 1,340 youth were selected and in 2023, 1,700 candidates were selected as per reports on breaking news in Hindi. 

Indian army is methodically tackling the shortage of officers 

There are a total of 19 ranks in the Indian Army, out of which nine are officers. At present, about 6,000 officer posts are vacant in the army. According to an army official, the shortage of officers is continuously decreasing as the army is doing everything necessary to meet these shortages. 

The army is also working on a broad-based plan to meet this challenge and that is expected to further improve results in the future. 

FAQs 

Q. What is required for a candidate to qualify for Service Selection Board [SSB] interview for military officer cadre? 

Ans: In order to qualify for the SSB interview a candidate must first clear the Combined Defence Services [CDS] or National Defence Academy [NDA] written examination. 

Q. After clearing SSB interview where do the successful candidates go for army officers’ training? 

Ans: The SSB interview for army officers takes place at two levels: 

i) CDS – For candidates between the ages of 19 and 25, whose minimum qualification is a bachelor’s degree 

ii) NDA - For candidates between the ages of 16 years 6 months and 18 years 6 months  

Establishment of Composite District Legislatures in India Cannot be Delayed Anymore

 It is just a question of time before the debate shifts to the “root cause” of the strife in the alarmingly large number of districts that the Maoist extreme left wing terrorists control. The official figure for the number of districts under Maoist influence is 200 but actually it is much more than that. We’re living in denial as usual although that isn’t going to change the ground realities or the root causes of the disquiet. So what are the root causes? Hunger? Grinding poverty? State apathy? Complete absence of governance in the countryside? Apparently, they are. Now, isn’t it already over 6 decades that this has pretty much been the state of affairs? 

So, what new hardware is going to be unloaded in these areas now that it’s going to change everything in a whiff? It also depends on what is special about the hardware and who’s in charge of the unloading to make any difference? All over the world and across all walks of life, if a particular delivery mechanism doesn’t work, the usual practice is to either rectify it or replace it. The governance delivery mechanism in India especially in the countryside has been malfunctioning from day one of our independent existence. So, what do we do? We wait for six decades till our dirt poor folks can take it no more and go wild. We want to do good for these poor folks. After all, they’re our blood brothers, our very own countrymen. Fair enough, there’s no doubt about the good intentions. However, good intentions must be followed up with worthy action or else everything goes down the drain or mysteriously vanishes as has happened till now. 

The NREGA is a good idea but only if it is delivered well. Unfortunately, there are hardly any areas where the NREGA could be delivered and leveraged optimally. These are hard-earned taxpayers’ money and that’s why they shouldn’t get wasted. Let’s face it – the failure of the Indian state to deliver anything to our dirt poor folks is mainly due to the faulty administrative structure at the level where the government of India actually interfaces the multitudes in our countryside. This level begins from the districts downward. The districts in India are not democratically structured as the union and the states are. The pyramid of the Indian administrative system bottoms out at the state level and from the district level downward, it presents a truncated, divided and confused scenario. 

At the district level, not only is the legislature divided between the urban (Nagar Palika) and the rural (Zilla Parishad) areas but even the executive authority is not an elected member of either legislature. In fact, it is normally a rank outsider, who in many cases, is not even from the state itself let alone, the district. Of course, we’re talking about the district collector who is normally an IAS officer and is a government appointed authority. Any district resident has all the reasons to ask ‘why is it so’? Especially, when this rank outsider is found wanting in the conduct of his duties in almost all the areas he is responsible for. To add salt to the wound, the district collector is not accountable or answerable to either the Nagar Palikas or the Zilla Parishads. In fact, he heads them and in most cases, they are answerable to him.

Now, if this is the scenario at the top of the district administration what should be expected at levels further down at the sub-divisional and block levels? So, is it any wonder that no governance worth the name ever reached the dirt poor folks who are staking their lives to protect the Maoist terrorists today? I’m not saying even for a moment that everything will start working well immediately after an overhaul of the district administrative structure. It might not, for all we know but if we have a proper democratic structure in the districts as in the union and the states, then true accountability emerges and deals with the rest, especially non-performance. People then have the option of replying democratically to misrule and not fall into the trap of the totalitarian monsters like the Maoist terrorists. 

On the other hand, who are we to impose this quasi-authoritarian district collector on the people of the districts? It is illegal and unconstitutional and if the matter is properly presented in the courts, the ruling will be decisively against the state governments or whichever authority is found to be imposing such administrative coercion on the people of the districts. Such coercion will be seen by the courts as standing in the way of democratic decentralization, e.g. a composite district legislature, from evolving in the districts. Without a composite district legislature emerging there’s no way that districts can ever have an executive authority which is democratically elected and is accountable to the people of the districts. It’s a simple enough solution if we really want to arrive at one because all it needs is just a little mental adjustment. We have to stop thinking that a composite district legislature would weaken the state administration without strengthening district administration.

In fact, that was the sentiment of the 2nd ARC (Administrative Reforms Commission) which had the good sense to suggest that the office of the district collector has to make way for an elected district mayor who will be accountable to a composite district legislature or a district council. Accountability in governance from the district level downward is not possible without this democratic decentralization and delivering NREGA and other worthwhile government programmes without an accountability mechanism will just remain a pipe dream. The Maoist problem has only added urgency for the recommendations of the 2nd ARC with respect to district governance, to be implemented without any further delay. The question is, who will bell the cat?

Why Doesn't India Have True Democracy at the District Level?

 The never-ending story of district collectors caught with wealth, hundreds of times more than their known sources of income, has been an ugly reality since the early days of British colonial oppression. It can be safely argued that this creature – the district collector, would have evolved nonetheless, had it been any other colonial power ruling the roost in India instead of the British.

The brazen pomp and grandeur along with the autocratic power and prestige that is usually associated with the job of a district collector in the perception of the average Indian, is illusory and misplaced on the one hand and utterly disgraceful, on the other. It’s a strange paradox – most people are awestruck by the power and ‘prestige’ of a civil service officer serving as a district collector and at the same time, is critical of the damage this officer of the government is doing to the nation. 

There have been good district collectors and some that have laid down their lives in the line of duty and a grateful and saddened nation have always saluted these bravehearts. However, the bulk of the district collectors that collide with criminals to loot public wealth have no business to cite the examples of these honest officers and ride piggyback on their sacrifice. Rather, we should ponder over why these honest officers had to pay such a high price for steadfastly doing their job. 

It’s not difficult to see why good officers have found it impossible to survive in the district collectorate. The entire structure of the district collectorate is a mockery of democracy and is institutionally and morally untenable. The district collector lords over the district as the executive authority with overriding powers to control the district level legislatures – the Zilla Parishad and the Nagar Palikas. Naturally, the collectorate has become the hub of the worst forms of vested interests. 

The district collector is a government appointed officer with no connection to the district he lords over, much like the collector during the British Raj. He is not accountable to the people of the district but they, including their elected representatives in the Zilla Parishads and Nagar Palikas, are accountable to him. Strangely, the voluntary sector constitutional ‘specialists’ who talk about power to the people, don’t bother about this sore thumb sticking out of Indian democracy. 

The question today, isn’t about a few good collectors getting sacrificed at the altar of corruption or whether the ‘rustics’ at the Zilla Parishads are fit to run their districts. It is about the basic question – can you have such an autocratic entity as a district collector with all the wrong attributes and infamy, right at the heart of the world’s largest democracy? Let’s even overlook the never-ending stories of collectors amassing astronomical wealth for the time being and focus on the basic question – why on earth have collectors to wreck our districts? Why shouldn’t the people of the districts have the right to govern themselves like it is done at the union and states? 

What are we going to do with our waste?

Heaven knows...as long as we just let it rot as waste, it won't be of any use to us. It reminds me of a wonderful title I came across on a brochure promoting an event in Mumbai, on waste management, in 2009 - WASTE IS NOT A WASTE TILL IT IS WASTED. I was given the job of proofreading the dummy copy before it went for printing. 

It will remain a loaded phrase for as long as we have waste in our planet or elsewhere in our universe and I've come to accept it as the mantra for waste management. I don't know where the brochure came from or why it ended up on my table but I'm thankful that I got to see it. So, hats off to whoever developed that wonderful line. 

Now, what are we going to do about the piles of waste lying everywhere in this country? I'm no expert of waste management nor am I a social scientist but I can see a couple of things right away when I think of the filthy 'wasteland' that my country has become. First, three-fourths of the visible waste everywhere seems to be plastic and second, we're a slack race that hasn't been able to rise to the level where it matters one bit, to us. Yet, I'm told that there are parts of the country where things are much better than where I live. I happen to be in Delhi NCR.

I've never been to Kerala or anywhere in the South, for that matter, except Hyderabad, for a couple of days where I didn't find time to see the Charminar! I didn't find Hyderabad too different from any of the other Indian cities I've been to. However, Kerala has been in the news for all the right reasons except for the unfortunate event when those paranoid Italian security guards ended up killing two of our fishermen, mistaking them for Somali pirates. Getting back to the point, Kerala boasts of a near cent percent literacy rate, near advanced economy HDI, a 50 billion USD+ temple treasure equivalent to or more than the state's total debt, to speak of a few.

Now, I hear that the state is pretty clean and green. Well, I have no doubt about the greenery as I've seen enough high resolution pictures of different parts of Kerala but when I heard about the comparatively better civic sense in Kerala, from more than one or two individuals who were from the north, I was pleasantly surprised. So, is it true? 

A part of India with one of the highest population densities, that has found a way to manage its waste? They call it 'God's own country' in the world of advertising and marketing and if Kerala has found a way to manage her waste, then it deserves every bit of this larger-than-life tagline.

I'm sure that a lot of people are already talking about the piles of unattended waste on our roadsides. I've also seen the lack of interest in our mainline mass media (TV and Print) to cover this issue in any way. If and when they do, they seem to do it with an air of nonchalance just as they would like to avoid covering everything in Kashmir that relates to ethnic cleansing of three quarters of a million Hindus who are now refugees in their own country. 

It's evident that plastic poly bags and packs are the main source of waste in India and the obvious first step is to ban them altogether, even if it means the loss of a few million jobs that are dependent on enterprises manufacturing such poly bags and packaging. We need to find ways to use this labour force to produce bio-degradable packaging material. The biggest hurdle in this endeavour - we're a slack race with no sense of our own priorities and will probably remain that way till kingdom come. 

Should We Worry About Thermal Paper Proliferation?

 Everywhere you go, from retail stores to movie theaters and from public transport vehicles to petrol pumps among others, the servicing personnel are eager to give you a receipt for the transactions you do. Any old timer with memories going back to the 70s, 80s and 90s would be pleasantly surprised by this new enthusiasm of point of sale (POS) personnel in giving away receipts for transactions. Moreover, the receipts are given away instantly, printed from compact, hand-held printers, a little larger than calculators. If the eagerness for transparency is admirable, the efficiency of instant bill generation is positively impressive. And yet, some folks refuse the receipts as if these are infectious objects.

Process of thermal printing
The paper used to print the receipts instantly, is known as thermal paper and the compact hand-held printer is a direct thermal printer. Contrary to conventional printing, here the printer doesn't use any consumables like ink, dye or ribbon; instead it uses heat to produce the print output or what we commonly refer to as printed matter. How? Well, as already mentioned, thermal paper has a chemical coating on the side where the printing takes place. When exposed to heat, it produces images or scribbles or whatever the heat exposure directs it to do.

On a thermal printer, the print head is designed to transfer heat in a controlled manner after being programmed to produce the desired print output. There is a small slot for a thermal paper roll, which is just about the size of a camera film reel, to fit into the printer. For the user, there can't be anything simpler since the thermal paper roll can slide into the slot just as easily as a camera film reel slides into a camera. This printer can be integrated to a large cash register or it can function as a standalone billing device. It's convenient and fast for both users and customers; so why are some folks skeptical? 

Hazardous chemical coating on the receipts
The controversy surrounding the thermal paper receipts is related to Bisphenol-A, a supposedly hazardous chemical compound, about which, opinion is divided among the experts. Some proclaim it to be hazardous, while others don't. However, the debate still hasn't gained traction in the mass media on a scale that could make everyone conscious about any issue with the compound, at least here in India. Understandably, it has not been long that thermal paper has been in use in India on any meaningful scale and so, awareness about it's likely hazards is not there, as much as it is elsewhere.

While the debate rages on, it would be naive to just overlook the possible hazards to humans, of direct exposure to thermal paper. It functions as a color developer in thermal paper, where it is present as 'free' and in non-polymerized state, which is supposedly more hazardous than when it is present on plastic and polymer products. In this 'free' state, humans exposed to BPA run the risk of absorbing it through their skins. Now, that's surely worrying although those arguing against the existence of any such risk put forth their own views about BPA on thermal paper. The likely outcome is rather serious - cancer, lung and kidney infection among other worrisome conditions.

As an end user and a customer, who likes convenience and efficiency, I would not like to let go off the thermal paper printer that the retail store or petrol pump personnel use. However, I can't overlook the fact that many countries have banned the use of BPA in all forms. Here in India, we are on a growth path with many retail segments going through sustained periods of boom; we need the efficiency to sustain that boom. The debate on BPA in India is as good as absent and it's not surprising. We still live hazardous lives - drive like maniacs on the roads, are oblivious to product adulteration and generally don't understand a whole lot of risks. Seems BPA is going to be with us for some more time. 

It's High Time Indian Politicians Got Their Dressing Right

 A couple of years ago we heard the phrase “suit boot ki sarkar” being used as a jibe by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to score brownie points over rival, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). So, what was the brownie point he wanted to score? It is the perception that the vast majority of the Indian people dislike the affluent folks who like to dress up in suits and boots.

Why? Because this vast majority are supposedly poor rural folks who hardly have anything to wear other than the loin cloth that MK Gandhi used to wear. But is that true? I don’t think so. Today, if you look at the average individual on the street, male or female, they are invariably young and hardly look more than 30 years of age. They all turn up in western outfits such as shirt and trousers or jeans.

Strangely enough, Indian politicians, irrespective of whether they are young or old, BJP or Congress or any other party, seem to share Gandhi’s perception that the bulk of the country’s people don’t like politicians who dress up in western outfit. That explains why all these politicians dress up in white kurta and churidar or pyjama, which instead of helping them align with the attire of common folks, actually mark them out as a different species altogether. So, in India, if you are a politician in northern India, you wear white knee-length kurta with pyjamas or churidar.

And if you are a politician in southern India, you wear white shirt and white dhoti wrapped around, lungi style.

Interestingly, 90% of the crowd they interact with, turn up in western style shirts or T-shirts along with trousers or jeans. So, what are these politicians trying to prove to the common people? Are they trying to tell them that only those who dress up in these ethnic outfits have the right to be political leaders in India? Or are they trying to tell the common folks that wearing ethnic outfit reflects simplicity and purity, which MK Gandhi, whom many consider the “Father of the Nation”, had preached? Now, there’s no harm in wearing ethnic attire but you can’t force people to wear them against their will. Neither can you build an ‘Old Boy’s Club’ of folks who wear ethnic attire and stonewall the rest, just because those folks wear western outfit. 

If wearing ethnic outfit is a non-negotiable virtue then why don’t the government servants like civil service officers, police personnel, military personnel, banking service personnel, etc. wear these ethnic outfit? How about asking the army personnel posted in the Himalayan frontier, to wear white ethnic outfit since the “Father of the Nation” had said it reflected purity and simplicity? Honestly, I think our politicians have become caricatures of a different world with which the common man doesn’t connect. They want to be seen as ‘pure and simple’ folks dressed in white ethnic clothing but they also want people to dive to their feet the moment they step down from their expensive super luxury vehicles. Whom are they trying to fool? 

It’s time for our leaders to gradually start filtering out the extravagant nonsense in the name of simplicity and purity and get closer to the people, dressed like the common man, in simple shirt and trouser. It’s not my place to talk about how the women leaders ought to dress up but like the women in the military and police, let them also make their adjustments if they feel it is necessary. The women leaders anyway don’t stand out as separate caricatures amongst the women crowd they interact with. It’s our male leaders who need to get real and get closer to the man on the street. Leave the ethnic wear for special occasions like cultural festivities, etc. For business, get down to shirt and trouser. That’s what the common man in India wears – in the urban, suburban or rural areas.

Where Make in India Failed Will Atma-Nirbhar Bharat Succeed?

The failure of the 'Make in India' program during Prime Minister Modi's first term is something that

Image Source - IndiaTVNews

many supporters of the BJP and the government of the day wasn't able to understand and also felt very embarrassed about. True, there were no scandals or scams so far in either Modi 1.0 or 2.0 but it's also true that Make in India didn't succeed. One might ask - what is Make in India after all and why is it so important in relation to the BJP in general and Modi in particular? Well, it was Modi who came up with this initiative which aimed to make India a true rival of China in terms of manufacturing capacity and productivity. You could almost always hear him speak about it everywhere with the tell-tale image of the lion made up of industrial gear wheels.

Objective of Make in India initiative

When you speak of making in India to compete with the global manufacturing powerhouse, China, it's all about doing it in massive scale involving, tens of billions of dollars in foreign investment, tens of millions of jobs for Indians and hundreds of billions of dollars in revenues for the Indian economy. There's no doubt that it was well-intended by a nationalist and patriotic party led by a charismatic leader. If it would have met just a partial success rate of just 40%, the BJP would have had enough gunpowder to blow the opposition's sadistic criticism to pieces. Unfortunately, the failure of the Make in India program is one subject that BJP rank and file is embarrassed to talk about today.

Image Source - Wikimedia

Actual situation on the ground 
The Chinese had gained control of about 70% of the smartphone market in India, the second largest in the world and accounted for well over USD 5 billion of this market. Just imagine the number of jobs this market would have created in China in all these years! We don't even hear about Samsung these days in India, let alone other non-Chinese and Indian brands we had known till about 4 years ago. As a BJP voter, I find it unbelievable that the Chinese smartphone oligarchies took over this huge Indian market with the BJP in power, going around talking BIG about Make in India! How on earth did the BJP allow that?? And what in Heaven's name were they trying to achieve by bringing the Chinese into the Indian market in this manner?? Is it any wonder that a great initiative like Make in India couldn't succeed? It was meant to be achieved with local Indian enterprise but weirdly enough, Indian local interests were sidestepped in favour of the Chinese of all people! The leaders in BJP taking such decisions must not take the nationalist and patriotic voters for granted.

Chinese are almost everywhere in our market

It's embarrasing to hear that over 80% of Holi and Diwali merchandise comes from China and the percentage increased exponentially in just the last 5 years or so - corresponding to the Modi government's first tenure. Not just that, 80% of the electronic and electrical components used by the PSU BSNL comes from China and again, this figure grew exponentially in just the last 5 years! The Chinese are picking up civil infrastructure and plum railway contracts right, left and centre. They literally control the fast-growing digital signage industry in India. I can go on endlessly but I must say that I find Modi's ignorance about Chinese intentions ridiculously unbelievable. Even if he had been advised wrongly, he should have considered the lessons of history before plunging into this whirlpool of stupidity. His 'jhoola' diplomacy in Ahmedabad, garden path diplomacy in Wuhan and 'dhoti' diplomacy in Mahabalipuram now appear as stupid as the 'Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai' diplomacy of Nehru. Luck though, is on Modi's side for now.

Image Source - Wall Street Journal 

Chinese goof up; Modi gets a chance to resurrect

Out of the blue, it appears that good fortune began shining on Modi - China loses composure in the face of worldwide Covid criticism and kicks up unnecessary dirt on the line of actual control (LAC), the de facto border with India. The situation temporarily goes out of China's hands as India reacts very strongly with multiple fatalities on either side resulting from hand-to-hand combat between Indian and Chinese troops on the LAC. China gets the worse of the exchange as it suffers more than double the fatalities than India. In other words, it got a bloody nose and suffered loss of prestige internationally. China just shot its own feet. World powers have stood up behind India and anti-China sentiments have reached a cresendo across India. The Chinese have just given Modi the BIG clue he was looking for!

Image Source - The Print/ANI 

Atma-Nirbhar Bharat - the new holy grail
It's true that Modi had been talking about Atma-Nirbhar (self-reliant) Bharat or Self-Reliant India ever since the early days of the Covid lockdown around March 2020. But it was little more than a slogan like Make in India and it lacked the rocket booster power needed to make it a reality till the Chinese offered the clue on a platter to Modi. Their creeping-crawlie encroachments on the LAC came up against Indian boots on the ground that led to the bloody skirmish. Following that there's nationawide anti-Chinese sentiment across India and we now see with horror how far deep into the Indian economy, the Chinese had made inroads. If this had gone on unchecked for another decade, the Chinese would have wrecked India's economy. Now, as sector after sector of the Indian economy are kicking the Chinese out, Modi goes into action mode with a windfall of benefits for local Indian businesses that had been reduced to function as petty sales agents of the Chinese till now.

Image Source - GroundReport

One last word of caution for Modi
We can very well see that he's making the course correction and he can rest assured that the nationalist voters won't ever seek retribution from him for this massive error if he stays on course. If there's anything that Modi must learn from the Chinese about self-sufficiency, it is that he must go out of his way to subsidize local manufacturers. Merely making high-sounding declarations like 'vocal for local' will be useless till there's action on the ground. If he's ready to accept that his China policy was responsible for the failure of Make in India, then he will be able to make amends with the Atma-Nirbhar Bharat program. Yes, he needs to be vocal for local but he must lay out the red carpet for local manufacturers just as he had been doing for foreign investors, especially the Chinese. This is a golden chance the Chinese have handed to him on a platter. He should now grab the dragon by its tail and hurl it so far away that it loses itself for generations.