The Indian Army is one of the oldest and biggest military organizations in the world. As per the sources the total strength of the troops in 2019 was 12,28,059. This includes 42,913 officers and 11,85,116 other ranks. Here, we are going to see the different commands of the Indian Army to learn how systematically it works.
Significance
The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army with its professional head as the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four-star general. The Headquarter of Indian Army is based in New Delhi. The army functions under 6 Operational and 1 Training Command. These Operational Commands are present at different geographical locations throughout the country for efficient working and multidimensional roles. Since India has huge geographical area, it is very important to decentralize the organization of better efficacy. This is also important as India shares land border with 8 different countries and is a peninsular nation. The commands ensure presence of men in olive green at all the required locations. Each of these commands are headed by a General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, who is a Lieutenant General, a three-star officer.
Locations
- The 6 different operational commands are present in CENTRE, NORTH, EAST, WEST, SOUTH and SOUTH-WEST. The Army Training Command was formed in MHOW, Madhya Pradesh but later shifted to Shimla. Its role is formulation and dissemination of concepts related to training and warfare and it act as the nodal agency for all institutional training in the Army.
The location of the commands is important to remember for an aspirant for both written exams and SSB. The easiest way to remember them is to plot them on the map and remember them according to the directions.
The late CDS Bipin Rawat came up with the idea of theaterisation of the armed forces. With the coming of theatre commands in the upcoming years the efficiency in working through operational commands will improve too.
