A comparison with the number of senior ranks in the Israeli Defence Forces shows that Indian Army is overcrowded at the top.
In response to this Times UK article on the burgeoning number of senior officers in the British Army, KoW blog compares them to the number of senior officers in the Israeli Defence Forces.
By contrast, [...]
One of the reasons armed forces are held to a higher standard than civil society.
Lt. General David Petraeus on learning leadership and management from business leaders:
But let me just say that at the end of the day what we do is different. And we should never lose sight of that. The responsibilities that our troopers [...]
Leave alone the video or the audio file, even the transcript of army chief’s annual press conference is not available at any government website.
If you’ve heard this story before, don’t stop me, because I’d like to hear it again.~Groucho Marx
General Deepak Kapoor, Indian Army Chief held the traditional press conference on the eve of the [...]
The next army chief says Indian Army is designed for defence of India within the sub-continental domain.
Here is an excerpt from an interview in Salute with Lieutenant General VK Singh, who — in all likelihood — will be the next army chief in a few months time.
Warfare [...]
It is a process, not a state.
From a dated blogpost by Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings that explains the oft-used term — a broken army.
It’s not as though one day we will hear a loud snap and find the Army broken in two. We will not get up one morning, flip a switch, and discover that [...]
There is no rationale to start another Officers Training Academy at Gaya when the existing one at Chennai is under-subscribed by 55 percent.
Earlier this week, Defence Minister Mr. A. K. Antony informed the Parliament about the pattern of cadet intake from 2006 to 2009 in various military academies, viz., the National Defence Academy [NDA], the [...]
The Army Chief labels Maoists’ a “socio-economic class struggle”.
During an event at the Pune University, the Army Chief explained his reservations about employing the army against the Left Wing Extremists in this manner.
The disruptive activities and spread of Naxalites in around 14 states poses a major security challenge. The government has adopted a multi-dimensional and [...]
Pretty young women must marry army officers to motivate young men to serve the nation.
With due apologies to The Acorn for using his proprietary blogpost title of Sunday Levity, this masterpiece from Chitranjan Sawant detailing the ways to overcome officer shortage in the Indian Army deserves widest possible coverage. The pièce de résistance is here.
Young [...]
The problem of corruption at higher ranks in the defence services can only be tackled by systemic reform.
Law shall not stop with the punishment of petty crimes by little people. It must also reach men who possess themselves of great power. ~Robert Jackson
Indian Express has a news story highlighting corruption cases at the top echelons [...]
This is actually not merely about a cricket match between two lowly placed teams in the Plate division of the Ranji Trophy. It is much more than it, with all the political implications and messages that such an event in Srinagar conveys. The foremost among them is to shatter all the claims of the state government about a return of normalcy to the state.
Tactically brilliant doesn’t always evolve into brilliant strategic military leadership.
From Abu Muqawama’s brilliant interview with author Greg Jaffe:
Petraeus is a very effective strategic leader. What bugs me is the narrative that he was somehow birthed atop Mount Olympus as the brilliant four star who saved the Army. In reality, his career is a bizarre departure [...]
Different institutional responses to 1962 and Sri Lanka 1987.
From the NYT Sunday Book Review of The Fourth Star – Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army:
As an institution, the United States Army has much more in common with, say, a giant corporation like General Motors than with a [...]
Does the central government have a concerted plan on Kashmir?
Think of small details as if they were pebbles you can use to start a ripple effect. ~Thomas J. Leonard
Swiftly and stealthily, the Indian government is steadily moving forward on Kashmir. Close on the heels of reports of a quiet dialogue with the separatists and push [...]
On merit, there is no case for a permanent Rashtriya Rifles.
This had happened earlier as well. Now again newsreports suggest that the Finance Ministry has stalled the defence ministry’s proposal to grant a permanent sanction for Rashtriya Rifles[RR], Indian Army’s counterinsurgency force deployed in Jammu & Kashmir.
Since 1990, when the force was raised to deal [...]
The Chinese suffered heavy losses at Indian hands.
To all those in the Indian media who tend to skip to Amar Chitra Katha versions of 1962 while drawing parallels with 2009, here is a small reminder about what happened at Nathu La in the interregnum, in 1967.
When the forward Chinese troops suddenly opened machine gun fire [...]
An asset and a liability.
Indian army has been Indian barely for 62 years now. It was the British Indian Army for at least twice that period. It should come as no surprise then that the Indian army still continues to draw most of its values and traditions from the British army.
One such quality is what [...]
…the state in fighting the naxals?
Most observers contend that the expertise earned by the Indian army in over five decades of counterinsurgency operations is not being utilised by the Indian state in its operations against Naxals. So how can the army practically help Indian government in fighting the naxals?
The most obvious — yet most [...]
Great in theory, problematic in practice.
The Times of India reports that senior army officers — with expertise in guerilla and jungle warfare — will be directly supervising a major offensive to be launched against the Maoists by the police and paramilitary forces in Jharkhand next month. From the contents of the report, it is difficult [...]
A pointer towards solving officer shortages in the Indian armed forces.
Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker:
Social scientists distinguish between what are known as treatment effects and selection effects. The Marine Corps, for instance, is largely a treatment-effect institution. It doesn’t have an enormous admissions office grading applicants along four separate dimensions of toughness and intelligence. [...]
The top brass got away scot-free. Where are the answers?
As matters stand now, a private who loses a rifle suffers far greater consequences than a general who loses a war.~LTC Paul Yingling
The indefatigable Praveen Swami, one of the few journalists to be well-versed with Indian defence matters, has asked that uncomfortable question again. Why was [...]
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