NEW DELHI: The Army plans to send its two-star generals back to the classrooms. No, the over 290 Major-Generals in the 1.18-million strong force will not be going to school. Instead, they will attend courses to future hone their “senior leadership skill sets and competencies” in tune with the rapid changes in military technology , threats and geopolitics and the like.

Sources on Monday said the Army commanders’ conference, chaired by General Bipin Rawat last week, cleared the decision for short-duration training courses for the relatively few officers who reach the Major-General rank after over 30 years of service in the “steeply-pyramidal” promotion structure in the force.

The top brass felt there was a need to evolve a training framework for senior officers because of the rapid technological transformation of the Army, the ever-expanding role of information warfare, changing geopolitical realities, societal changes, rising aspirations of soldiers, proliferation in social media platforms and other challenges.

“All these factors have increased the complexities for senior leaders in the force. Various modalities like the timeframe, curriculum, bench-marking and the like for the Major-Generals will be now worked out after last week’s approval,” said a source.

After being commissioned as Lieutenants from the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, or the Officers’ Training Academies at Chennai and Gaya, young officers are progressively groomed in leadership and warfare with several in-service courses and training programmes at every stage. But it virtually stops after they become Brigadiers or one-star generals.

“There is the 11-month course at the National Defence College (NDC) at New Delhi but only about 40 Brigadiers are selected for it. Moreover, the NDC focuses only on security and strategic issues at the national and international levels...it does not train an officer for taking command of a division, with around 15,000 soldiers, as a Major-General,” he added.

The Indian Army , incidentally, is the world’s third-largest standing army, with six operational or regional commands and one training command (headed by senior Lt-Generals), 14 corps (headed by Lt-Generals), 49 divisions (headed by Major-Generals) and over 240 brigades.

“I thought I would escape studies after joining the Army but all my hopes were dashed. Apart from all the operational pressures and far-flung deployments, there are the exams that have to be cleared for promotion to the next rank. A Captain, for instance, can become a Major only if he clears the ‘Part B’ exam, and then `Part D’ exam for the Lt-Colonel rank,” said a senior officer.

Then, there is the “Higher Command Course” for Colonels after they have successfully commanded their battalions. In between, there is also the competitive one-year Defence Services Staff College course at Wellington for Majors and Lt-Colonels. Now, even Major-Generals will have to burn some midnight oil.

