The minister informed the parliament that the authorised strength of the Indian Army for officers is 49,933 but the Indian Army only has 42,635 officers as of January 2018. As per the world atlas report for 2018 and EurAsian Times secondary research, the Indian Army is the second largest in the world in terms of strength of troops.

Similarly, for the Indian Navy, the approved strength of officers is 11,352 officers but the current strength of officers is 9746. Hence the Indian Navy is facing a shortage of 1606 officers as per the statistics for January 2018.

Not just the Indian Army and the Indian Navy but the Indian Air Force too is facing a dire shortage of officers. While the authorised strength of officers for the Indian Air Force is 12,584, the present strength of officers is 12,392. The Indian Air Force is short of 192 officers while is still a smaller number when compared to the shortage of officers in the Indian Army and the Indian Navy.

The minister also stated that the recruitment of armed forces is a continuous process. He further added that the Indian Government is undertaking concrete and concurrent steps to negate the shortage of officers across the three defence forces. He also stated that the government will also work towards making the armed forces’ jobs more interesting and promotion friendly.

The government will take awareness programs to make the youth aware of the lucrative advantages that come with recruitment in the Indian Armed Forces. The government will specifically look to take this awareness across the youngsters dwelling in the rural areas of India.