Hello, Warriors! Many of us have the dreams of joining the Indian armed forces as a commissioned officer but only the aspirants who are worth it, make their dreams come true. Indian Army is one such wing of the forces which sees many willing soldiers and aspirants ready to serve the nation in the true traditions of the army. From Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw to Late Capt Vikram Batra and from Milkha Singh to the captain cool, MS Dhoni, the army has made celebrities of it’s soldiers, be it in the war or the Olympics.
The Indian army has engaged in several wars since independence, four of which being with Pakistan and one involving China.
Here are the facts that, we, as aspirants, should know about the Indian Army:
- Indian army is the world’s largest standing volunteer army. India’s constitution holds the power to make serving in the army as a compulsory service but it has never been enforced considering the fact that many willing aspirants are ready to serve the nation in the highly respected uniform.
- Its strength includes 11,29,900 active troops and 96,000 reserve personnel. Some latest figures suggest the troop strength to be around 13,00,000 personnel of various ranks. Indian Army is one of the best and well-quipped armies in the world. Modernisation and upgradation has been a continuous process in the army to keep the armed forces ready to meet new challenges.
- The Indian Army is headquartered at New Delhi, under the overall command, control and administration of the Chief of Army Staff – The CoAS.
- The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of all the three military services including the Indian Coast Guard while the chief of army staff of the rank of general, General Dalbir Singh Suhag commands the Indian Army.
- The primary responsibility of the elite force is to safeguard territorial integrity of the nation and ensure defence of the Republic of India from external aggression and threats and to maintain peace and security within it’s borders. In addition, it also conducts humanitarian rescue operations during natural calamities and disasters.
- The Army operates in seven operational commands. Each command is headed by General Officer Commanding-in-Chief with the rank of Lieutenant General and it is directly affiliated with the army headquarters, located in New Delhi. The Various commands of the army are:
| COMMAND | HEAD QUARTER |
| Central Command | Lucknow, UP |
| Eastern Command | Kolkata, WB |
| Northern Command | Udhampur, J&k |
| Southern Command | Pune, Maharashtra |
| South-Western Command | Jaipur, Rajasthan |
| Western Command | Chandimandir |
| Training Command | Shimla, HP |
7. Army troops are organised into Arms and Services based on the nature of work they do. I’ll be covering more about it in Part-2 of the topic.
