The total number of men and women officers serving in the Indian Army is 35,605 and 1,020 respectively (excluding Army Medical Corps, Army Dental Corps and Military Nursing Services). At present, the shortfall in the number of officers in the Army is 11,137.

Revealing this in the Parliament, the Defence Minister A.K. Antony said that the government had allowed re-employment of retired Brigadiers against some staff/instructional/other appointments. The number of re-employed retired Brigadiers is limited to a maximum 10 per cent of the authorised strength of the re-employed officers.

The government has been taking steps on a continuous and an ongoing basis to reduce shortage of officers. All officers including those in Short Service Commission (SSC) are now eligible to hold substantive rank of Captain, Major and Lieutenant Colonel after two, six and 13 years of reckonable service respectively. The tenure of SSC officers has been increased from 10 years to 14 years. A total number of 750 posts of Lt Colonel have been upgraded to Colonel towards implementation of the A.V. Singh Committee Report (Phase-I). Further, 1,896 additional posts in the ranks of Colonel, Brigadier, Major General and Lieutenant General and their equivalents in the other two services have been upgraded towards implementation of the A.V. Singh Committee Report (Phase-II). The implementation of recommendations of the Sixth Central Pay Commission with substantial improvement in the pay structure of officers of armed forces has made the services more attractive.

The armed forces have also undertaken sustained image projection and publicity campaign to create awareness among the youth on the advantages of taking up a challenging and satisfying career. Awareness campaigns, participation in career fairs and exhibitions, advertisements in print and electronic media, motivational lectures in schools, colleges are also some of the other measures in this direction. The intake of officers, in Army, has shown a positive trend.