Eye on China, Territorial Army to now enlist officers who know Mandarin | India News

NEW DELHI: In keeping with its ongoing drive to enhance expertise in Chinese language among its ranks, the Army is now going to induct Mandarin-trained officers in Territorial Army (TA) units as well.
The Army on Sunday issued a notification to invite applications for such Mandarin experts in the TA after acquiring the requisite approvals. For starters, the force will recruit five civilian candidates and one ex-serviceman through this notification.
With the Army recalibrating its strategic outlook towards the northern borders, which included additional forces and firepower being ‘rebalanced’ to the line of actual control, the force has “upscaled its Chinese language training and the number of Chinese linguists”, officers said.
The 12-lakh strong Army has taken several measures to address the “capability voids” in Mandarin proficiency as well as Tibetology amidst the over two-year-long military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh, as was earlier reported by TOI.
“The aim is to empower junior and senior military commanders to engage with People’s Liberation Army (PLA) personnel as and when the situation arises like sector-level talks, flag and border personnel meetings. With improved Mandarin skills, our Army personnel will be better empowered to convey their points in a much more cogent manner,” an officer said. Chinese language experts are a functional requirement at the tactical level, and are also required for providing analysis at the operational and strategic levels.
Towards this end, the Army has concluded MoUs with Rashtriya Raksha University, Central University of Gujarat and Shiv Nadar University for imparting Mandarin proficiency to its personnel. The vacancies at Army’s Training School at Pachmarhi and School of Foreign Languages, Delhi, havebeen increased.
Mandarin language courses are being run at the language schools of the Northern, Eastern and Central Commands.