OFFICERS' SELECTION AND TRAINING CONUNDRUM

RAJ MEHTA explains how the selection system for officers of the Indian Army remains largely in stasis besides being opaque to military scrutiny and suggests ways to improve it

Defence Institute of Psychological Research (DIPR) is a publicly recessed, little known DRDO laboratory other than in military circles. It is India’s sole nodal agency responsible for military officer selection. It runs as well as mans the Services Selection

Board (SSB) System with assessors both civil and military civil trained by its psychologists. Candidates gain access to the SSB regimen through myriad routes and methods for selection as officer cadets across the regular armed forces and across gender.

Raised in 1963, DIPR has been a long-standing member of the most advanced institutions of the western world that deal with selection and training of military personnel across gender. These institutions have a charter extending not just from officer preselection till retirement but, equally importantly, identifying future challenges that will confront the military and suggest strategies to deal with them by invoking changes in selection and training norms.

These institutions by the very nature of their charter are in intimate touch with selection and training institutions worldwide. They thus involve in two way scientific and professional interaction with countries and institutions through annual symposiums/conferences. They commission peer-reviewed research papers affecting all aspects of their complex charter in theory and practice.