Only about 30-40 per cent of Lieutenant Colonels are approved for the rank of Colonel.

Indian Army’s New HR Policy Promoting Specialisation

With a focus on specialisation, the Indian Army implemented a new Human Resource (HR) policy on 1 January 2024 that allows ranks higher than Lieutenant Colonels to continue working in the field. Earlier, only about 30 to 40 per cent of Lt Colonels would become Colonels as the requirement for them was to assume command positions by leaving their specialisation domains.

However, now the Indian Army wants to retain specialist officers in fields like Artificial Intelligence (AI), space, Information Technology (IT), nanotechnology, robotics and weapons design, etc. Lt Colonel Prasad Bansod has become the first beneficiary of this new HR policy and has now been promoted to the rank of Colonel while being on deputation with the DRDO’s small arms laboratory. Bansod is probably the only army officer who designed and developed a weapon. This is a 9 mm carbine called the ‘Asmi and is currently in limited series production.

Bansod was missing his promotion for many years because according to the old policy, he was required to either move on to a command or administrative post. The carbine developed by Bansod can potentially replace a million World War 2 era British-designed Sterling carbines. It can also help India expand its defence export due to its low cost. While Bansod is just the first beneficiary, many more Army officers can work on their area of specialisation, even after getting promoted to Colonel rank. This will enhance Army’s operational capabilities.