Indian Armed Forces
The Indian Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of India. It consists of three professional uniformed services: the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force.[11] Additionally, the Indian Armed Forces are supported by the Central Armed Police Forces,[12] Indian Coast Guard and Special Frontier Force and various inter-service commands and institutions such as the Strategic Forces Command, the Andaman and Nicobar Command and the Integrated Defence Staff. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces but the executive authority and responsibility for national security is vested in the Prime Minister of India and their chosen Cabinet Ministers.[13][14][15][16] The Indian Armed Forces are under the management of the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India. With strength of over 1.4 million active personnel,[17][18] it is the world's second-largest military force and has the world's largest volunteer army.[19] It also has the third-largest defence budget in the world.[20] The Global Firepower Index report lists it as the fourth most-powerful military.[21]
Indian Armed Forces
Giridhar Aramane, IAS
18[1]
No
23,116,044[2]
1,455,550[3] (ranked 2nd)
1,155,000[3]
₹5.94 trillion (US$71 billion) (2023–24)[4]
(ranked 4th)
2% (2022–23)[4]
Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited (AVNL)
Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited (AWEIL)
Troop Comforts Limited (TCL)
Yantra India Limited (YIL)
India Optel Limited (IOL)
Gliders India Limited (GIL)
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)
Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL)
Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML)
Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL)
Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDSL)
Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL)
Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL)
Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE)
Mishra Dhatu Nigam (MDN)[5]
US$41.208 billion (2010–2021)[10]
US$448 million (2010–2021)[10]
The Indian Armed Forces have been engaged in a number of major military operations, including: the Indo-Pakistani wars of 1947, 1965 and 1971, the Portuguese-Indian War, the Sino-Indian War, the 1967 Cho La incident, the 1987 Sino-Indian skirmish, the Kargil War, and the Siachen conflict among others. India honours its armed forces and military personnel annually on Armed Forces Flag Day, 7 December. Armed with the nuclear triad,[22] the Indian armed forces are steadily undergoing modernisation,[23] with investments in areas such as futuristic soldier systems and missile defence systems.[24][23]
The Department of Defence Production of the Ministry of Defence is responsible for the indigenous production of equipment used by the Indian Armed Forces. It comprises 16 Defence PSUs.[25] India remains one of the largest importer of defence equipment with Russia, Israel, France and the United States being the top foreign suppliers of military equipment.[26] The Government of India, as part of the Make in India initiative, seeks to indigenise manufacturing and reduce dependence on imports for defence.[27]
The Special Forces of India are Indian military units[224] with specialised training in the field of special operations such as" Direct action, Hostage rescue, Counter-terrorism, Unconventional warfare, Special reconnaissance, Foreign Internal Defence, Personnel recovery, Asymmetric warfare and Counter-proliferation. The various branches include,
Defence intelligence
The Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an organisation responsible for providing and co-ordinating intelligence for the Indian armed forces.[283] It was created in March 2002 and is administered within the Union Ministry of Defence. It is headed by a Director General who is also the principal adviser to the Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence Staff.
Traditionally, the bulk of intelligence work in India has been carried out by the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB). The various services intelligence directorates namely the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), the Directorate of Air Intelligence (DAI), Directorate of Naval Intelligence (DNI) and some other agencies are also involved but their activity is smaller by comparison. The R&AW and IB agencies are composed largely of civilians. Military personnel are often deputed to these agencies, but the letter of the law and concerns of deniability limit the use of serving military officers in some types of activity (especially collection and action). The creation of an intelligence agency co-ordinating the intelligence arms of the three military services had long been called for by senior Indian military officers. It was formally recommended by the Cabinet Group of Ministers, headed by the then Deputy Prime Minister of India Lal Krishna Advani. The Group of Ministers investigated intelligence lapses that occurred during the Kargil War and recommended a comprehensive reform of Indian intelligence agencies.[284] The Defence Intelligence Agency was created and became operational in March 2002.[284] As part of expanding bilateral co-operation on gathering intelligence and fighting terrorism, the United States military also provided advice to Indian military officers on the creation of the DIA.[284]
DIA has control of MoD's prized technical intelligence assets – the Directorate of Signals Intelligence and the Defence Image Processing and Analysis Centre (DIPAC). While the Signals Directorate is responsible for acquiring and decrypting enemy communications, the DIPAC controls India's satellite-based image acquisition capabilities. The DIA also controls the Defence Information Warfare Agency (DIWA) which handles all elements of the information warfare repertoire, including psychological operations, cyber-war, electronic intercepts and the monitoring of sound waves.
Misconceptions in nomenclature
There are a number of uniformed forces in India apart from the Indian Armed Forces. All such forces are established under the acts of Parliament. They are: the Central Reserve Police Force, the Border Security Force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the Central Industrial Security Force, the Sashastra Seema Bal, the Assam Rifles, the National Security Guard under the Ministry of Home Affairs (India), the Special Protection Group under the Cabinet Secretariat of India, the Railway Protection Force under Ministry of Railways (India), and the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) under the Ministry of Defence (India). These forces are referred to as "Armed Force of the Union" in their respective acts, which means a force with armed capability and not necessarily "Armed Forces", the term as per international standards and conventionally referred to as "Army", "Navy" and "Air Force". The Supreme Court in its judgements reported in AIR 1996 SC 1705 held that the military service is only confined to three principal wings of the armed forces i.e. Army, Navy and Air Force. Further the Honourable Supreme Court of India in a case reported in AIR 2000 SC 3948 clarified that unless it is a service in the three principal wing of the Armed Forces, a force included in the expression "Armed forces of the Union" does not constitute part of the military service/military.[318] To differentiate from Armed Forces, Some of other forces were commonly referred to as Central Paramilitary Forces which caused confusion and give the impression of them being part of the military forces.
To remove such confusion, in 2011 the Ministry of Home Affairs adopted the uniform nomenclature of Central Armed Police Forces for only five of its Primary Police organisations.[319][320] These were formerly called as Paramilitary Forces. Central Armed Police Forces are still incorrectly referred to as "Paramilitary Forces" in the media and in some correspondences. These forces are headed by officers from the Indian Police Service and are under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Other uniform services are referred to by their names only such as: the Railway Protection Force, the NSG, the SPG, the ICG, the Assam Rifles etc., but not under any collective nomenclature. However, conventionally some forces are referred to as the Paramilitary Forces of India, for example the Assam Rifles, the SFF and the ICG.
The Indian Coast Guard is often confused incorrectly as being a part of the military forces due to the organisation being under the Ministry of Defence. The Supreme Court in its judgement has held that unless it is a service in the three principal wings of the Armed Forces, a force included in the expression "Armed forces of the Union" does not constitute part of military service/military. The Indian Coast Guard works closely with civilian agencies such as Customs, the Department of Fisheries, the Coastal Police etc. with its primary role being that of a non-military, maritime law enforcement agency.[321][322] It is independent of the command and control of the Indian Navy. ICG was initially planned to be kept under the Ministry of Home Affairs but has been kept under the Ministry of Defence for better synergy since it is patterned like the navy.[323] The ICG does not take part in any protocol of military forces such as the President's Body Guard, ADCs, the Tri-Services Guard of Honour etc. Their recruitment is also not under the Combined Defence Services Exam/National Defence Academy Exam which is one of the prime modes of commissioning officers to the Armed Forces. Indian Coast Guard Officers continue to get their training with Indian Navy Officers since the ICG does not have its own training academy. Already a new Indian Coast Guard Academy for training of their officers is under construction. Often ICG loses its credit for being incorrectly recognised as part of Indian military Forces and not as a unique independent force.
References
Footnotes
^ Does not include members of the Indian Police Service.