Army to get younger 4 years from now

Although this proposal was approved in principle by Mukherjee’s predecessor George Fernandes in November 2003, it was never cleared.

In line with the recommendations of the Subhramanyam Committee, the Ministry set up a committee in 2002 under A V Singh, then Special Secretary and now Defence Secretary, to suggest ways to tackle the high age profile and career stagnation at junior and middle-level ranks.

In his report, Singh suggested creation of 1,400 posts of Colonels, 160 Brigadiers, 80 Major Generals and 20 Lt Generals to ensure upward mobility among the higher ranks.

While Mukherjee has still not decided on creation of additional posts at the Brigadier and above levels, he agrees there’s need for a younger age profile at the entry level of the armed forces. He has plans to promote a Lieutenant to Captain after two years instead of the present four years of service, Captain to Major after six years instead of 10, and Major to Lt Colonel after 13 instead of 16 years.

Creation of additional 750 posts of Colonels will also help reduce the command tenure of a Colonel from the present three-four years to a fixed tenure of two years.

In the last eight years, as many as 181 Colonel posts were sanctioned without any increase in the actual number of posts and this led to a situation where Colonels were commanding Rashtriya Rifles or Assam Rifles units for even six years.

There’s concern that an increase of 750 vacancies at the Colonel level will result in stagnation at that level if there’s no complementary increase in the higher ranks. But the Army plans to sort it out through its ‘‘pull and peel’’ method: by creating additional vacancies, more officers will be ‘‘pulled’’ to the next rank while others will be ‘‘peeled off’’ by being sent on deputation elsewhere.