Indian Army set to cut 1.5 lakh jobs, money to be used to buy modern weapons

In a massive overhaul, the Indian Army plans to cut around 1.5 lakh jobs, latest media reports said on Monday. The money saved will be used to buy modern weapons as the focus shifts on ‘lean and mean’ force. 

‘Merging of some verticals and rationalising roles are likely to result in cutting 50,000 troops over the next two years. A reduction of 100,000 more personnel may be possible by 2022-23. But all this is in the study phase right now,’ a military official was quoted as saying by the HT. 

An NDTV report said that the job cuts will help the army in saving around Rs 7,000 crore. The money will be sued to buy weapons, the report said. 

The Indian Army has been facing severe fund crunch. In June, there was a report that said that the army had placed an order for only 250,000 modern assault rifles despite its total requirement of 800,000 rifles.

According to the Bloomberg report, only a third of its total requirement was to be placed to speed up deliveries of rifles.

"Plans to buy new equipment from overseas, however, have been held back by bureaucratic delays and the military’s desire to balance the needs of its troops against efforts to build equipment domestically under Modi’s ‘Make in India’ program, a key plank in his drive to boost local manufacturing," the report had said.

In March, just after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget, Army Vice Chief Lt General Sarath Chand had said that the budget allocation for 2018-19 "dashed the hopes" of the Army. He had also said that the marginal increase was barely enough to meet inflation as 68% of the force's equipment falls in the "vintage category".

In the oral deposition to the Parliamentary panel, the Vice Chief had said the allocation of Rs 21,338 crore for modernisation is way below the committed payments of Rs 29,033.