Indian Army Mulls New HR Policy: Officers Specialising In Niche Technologies Can Skip Command Roles Post-Colonel Promotion

Army officers with expertise in specialised fields like artificial intelligence, robotics, and drones can now reportedly opt to stay in their area of specialisation upon promotion to Colonel, instead of the usual shift to command roles.

The Army is bringing in a new HR policy under which Lieutenant Colonels approved for promotion to the rank of Colonels can voluntarily continue in their field of expertise and not move for command appointments, which is the standard practice at present, Indian Express reported citing sources.

Currently, only about 30-40 per cent of Lieutenant Colonels advance to the rank of Colonel.

This policy also applies to officers specializing in other niche areas such as space, information technology, nano technology, weapons, ammunition as well as in information operations, specific languages and other key projects. 

The aim of the policy is to encourage domain specialisation in the Army.

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However, officers who choose to stay in their selected domain will have to give up command assignments and will not be eligible for further career courses like senior command or higher command.

Under the policy, an officer will stay in his domain of specialisation for two years, after which a board of officers will decide on any further extension based on performance and organisational needs. If not extended, the officer will be assigned to other staff roles as a Colonel.

The policy also mandates that the officers must be approved for the rank of Colonel as per their merit.

“While the policy will provide an opportunity to officers to develop an expertise and excel in a specific domain, it will also deny him any future promotion and career enhancement,” an officer was quoted as saying in the IE report.

"Such officers would continue to be employed in the specialised field and would also be eligible for study leave or deputation only in the selected domain,” the officer added.

The policy was introduced after recognizing that few officers were opting to stay in their specialized fields at the expense of command appointments.

For career progression, Colonels are typically required to serve in command roles. Officers leaving their specialised appointments prematurely were creating a void, thus, negatively impacting the Army's overall requirement.

The policy's effectiveness will be reviewed after three years.

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