Senior leadership of Indian Army assembled on 19th Aug 2024 at new Delhi for a high level meeting chaired by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Upendra Dwivedi. To add, this is the first inter-service meeting when General Dwivedi is at the helm of affairs as the COAS after his appointment to the top post on 30 June 2024. The meeting continues until 20 August and the General Officer Commanding-in-Chiefs (GOC-in-Cs) of Indian Army’s seven commands are in attendance.
The major emphasis of the discussion was on the roadmap of Indian Army in Amrit Kaal with respect to the Vision of Government of India to transform India into a developed country, a pretender power in the world and one of the best country to live in by the year 2047. It gave the opportunity to the Indian Army’s most senior officers to openly discuss strategic aspects and chart the trajectory of the transformation of the Indian Army for the next two decades.
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Key goals for Viksit Bharat@2047
The Indian Army stepped into the decade of Transformation by renaming year 2023 as ‘Year of Transformation’ and year 2024 as ‘Year of Technology Absorption’ to orient rank and File toward the Transformative Measures being taken.
The senior leadership outlined several broad goals to be pursued in next decade, including: Theaterisation, reorganisation of the structures of the Army and Command Headquarters, the formation structure changes with respect to realignment of Command, Corps and Area Headquarters. Other discussion agendas included World Class Infrastructure Development, Expand and Strengthen Multi-Domain and Cross-Domain operational capabilities on land, air, cyber and space. The COAS encouraged every and Antecedent to promote Atmanirbharta, and work for self-reliance in indigenization of equipment platforms, further desired the Indian Defense Industries not only to develop a world class equipment but also help in becoming a front line defense exporter.
Measures to increase the level of jointness and integration of armed forces were also proposed for further development of the joint service frameworks and institutions in addition to the requirement for the development of the joint military posts and divisions as far as logistical support, communication systems and other facilities. Measures to enhance the quality and efficiency of personnel at various organizational levels in the context of Human Resource Development (HRD) undertakings were also discussed.
Key discussions and initiatives
The discussions were centered around ongoing transformational initiatives by the Indian Army and its contribution towards achieving the objective of Viksit Bharat@2047.
Rationalisation of the Army Headquarters, Command Headquarters and other structures to accord with efficiency and effectiveness; the process of mechanisation of all the combat arms, combat support arms and the all the logistics units; strengthening cooperation with the joint use of forces and means of the Army, Navy and Air Force to meet the future requirements of warfare; interest in indigenisation, backing of the domestic defence industry and which puts India at the front of export defence equipment were all discussed in the meeting.
Additional initiatives
The discussions concluded with the ongoing initiatives of Indian Army aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047. Military education and training was underscored with Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping (CUNPK) as Centre of excellence. Defence diplomacy was discussed with the focus on creation of more defence Wings, expansion of Indian Army’s presence in United Nations operations, and active engagement in multinational military drills.
Government campaigns such as Gati Shakti were also mentioned involving the Army, detailed work done in this regard, particularly in areas of infrastructure with usable ends for both civil and military use. Other well-known aspects of Indian Army touched upon were the health care through establishment of ECHS and military hospitals and education/skill development through schemes like Kaushalveer.
Earlier, The Army also came forward in making the youth empowered through National Cadet Corps (NCC) and in sports through Mission Olympic for making a worthy athlete to get world level training for Olympics to win the valuable medals.
