Military needs officers

Govt must increase awareness among youth

Answering a parliamentary question on Monday, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt revealed that the military was short of 6,828 officers: 2,094 officers of the rank of major and 4,734 officers of the rank of captain. Besides these, the three services are short of 1,404 medical officers: Doctors, dentists and nurses. The minister said the shortage could be ascribed to a low intake of officers during the pandemic and in all support cadre entries. However, in December 2017, the defence minister had revealed there was a shortage of 9,259 officers: 7,679 in the army, 1,434 in the navy, and