Like all three services of the Indian armed forces, the Indian Navy is also facing an acute shortage of sailor and officers. (Photo for representation.)
New Delhi: The Indian Navy has been grappling with shortage of personnel for a while now. However, the true extent of the shortage came to light on Friday when the government gave out the figures in response to a query in Parliament.
The minister of state for defence, Ajay Bhatt, informed Parliament that as of October 31, the Navy has a total manpower shortage of 10,896 personnel. This includes posts lying vacant for 9,119 sailors and 1,777 officers.
The junior defence minister also said that in 2021, a total of 323 officers were recruited while in 2022, 386 officers joined the service. During the same period, a total of 5,547 sailors joined the force in 2021, whereas 5,171 were inducted in 2022.
The sanctioned strength of officers and sailors in the Navy is 11,979 and 76,649 respectively.
It may be noted that in March this year, the government had informed that the armed forces are facing a shortage of about 1.55 lakh personnel. Of them, the Indian Army alone had 1.36 lakh vacancies. In 2021, the government had informed Parliament that the Army faced a total shortage of 104,053 personnel, the Navy 12, 431, while the Indian Air Force faced a shortage of 5,471 personnel.
These figures are inclusive of both officers and personnel below officer rank (PBOR).
Funds for dual-use tech
Replying to a separate question on Friday in Parliament, Bhatt said the government has set up a technology development fund to provide financial assistance to Indian industries, startups as well as academic and scientific institutions for the development of military and dual use technologies. He also informed that the fund is also aimed at engaging the private industries, especially MSMEs and startups, to bring in the culture of design and development of military technology and support them with grant in aid.
On the plan of setting up of a “non-lapsable defence-modernization fund”, the junior defence minister said it will be available for modernization of the defence forces and would supplement the regular yearly budgetary allocations by eliminating any uncertainty in provisioning of adequate funds for various defence capability development and infrastructure projects.
Bhatt said the finance ministry is working out a separate mechanism towards this in consultation with the defence ministry.
