Army facing shortage of over 8,600 officers: Government

NEW DELHI: The Army is facing a shortage of 8,671 officers, excluding the medical and dental corps and the military nursing service, Rajya Sabha was informed today.

In a written reply, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said as against the authorised strength of 49,833 officers, the held strength is 41,162.

He said some of the major reasons for shortage of officers include increase in authorised strength due to accretions in force level from time to time, stringent selection criteria coupled with perceived high degree of risk.

The shortage of officers in the Indian Army (approximately 17 per cent) is expected to get reduced gradually depending on a number of variable factors like future accretions, number of exits, actual intake among others, Parrikar said.