Defenceinfo Bureau Report
Deliberations at the Army Commanders Conference being held in New Delhi centered around the need to upgrade the intellectual threshold of the officer cadre. A presentation on, “Professional Military Education for Scholar Warriors of the Indian Army” was made by the Army Training Command. It was brought out that, whereas the current professional development philosophy for officers was focused mainly on structured and institutionalised training,the future training philosophy should aim at ensuring that officers gain adequate understanding of issues of national, strategic and technical importance, in their formative years, through professional military education. A noble thought process but difficult in application in view of the commitment to low intensity conflict and counter insurgency which puts a severe strain on the officer availability. Further,the culture of “Power Point presentations” takes maximum time of the officers during peace tenures. More than training there is a need to find ways and means to give the harassed officer cadre some time for self development. Here’s hoping that this would someday form the agenda of the conference.