India
On surgical strikes anniversary eve, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following long deliberations over the structure and composition of the new formations, accepted the demand of the three forces that had not been met for almost 10 years after it was first mooted in the UPA era
New Delhi: In a massive boost for the armed forces on the eve of the surgical strike on terrorist training camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the creation of three new special divisions that will look after operations related to space, cyber and special forces.
The demand of the three forces had not been met for almost 10 years after it was first mooted in the UPA era. It has been cleared by the Prime Minister after long deliberations over the structure and composition of the new formations.
The three formations have been approved by the Prime Minister. The issue had come up for discussion during the combined commanders' conference held on Friday in Jodhpur under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, highly-placed government sources told MyNation.
The three agencies, which were earlier supposed to be headed by Indian Army’s commander-rank officers as per the older plan, will now be headed by officers of the rank of major general and equivalent in the Indian Navy and Indian Air Force when they are raised.
The cyber and space agencies will be based out of Delhi for close coordination with their civilian counterparts while the special operations division will be based outside the national capital.
The decision to put off the creation of new commands and work towards creating smaller formations was taken soon after Prime Minister Modi had told senior military commanders that while global powers were reducing the number of their personnel, Indian forces were continuously demanding expansion in size.
The armed forces had initiated the demand for creation of three new commands during the UPA government where the three services had decided to take one command each, setting up three army commander-equivalent positions.
The country has only two operational tri-services commands including the strategically located Andaman and Nicobar command in Port Blair, which is now likely to have an officer from the Navy as its head permanently. The other tri-services organisation is the strategic forces command, which looks after the nuclear arsenal including the Agni-series missiles for the nuclear command authority headed by the Prime Minister.
Read Exclusive COVID-19 Coronavirus News updates, at MyNation.