Amid the deadlock at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the Army will soon begin recruitment of interpreters of Chinese languages in the Territorial Army (TA).
In a notification published on Sunday, the Army invited applications to hire six interpreters, of which five would be civilian candidates and one an ex-service officer. They should be between the age of 18 and 42.
The development comes amid the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) efforts to recruit Hindi interpreters, possibly as part of its intelligence gathering efforts and interception jobs at the Tibet Autonomous Region.
As reported by News18 in May this year, intelligence inputs had suggested that the Hindi interpreters would be recruited from among fresh graduates from different universities of China.
This is the first time that interpreters of Chinese languages will be recruited into the TA. In the past few years, the Army has been putting special focus on training its soldiers in Mandarin. As per defence sources, the Army currently has a significant pool of Mandarin-qualified personnel drawn from all ranks.
Army soldiers posted along the LAC are also being trained in Tibetology, which includes Tibet’s culture, language and history and the Buddhist philosophy that guides the region’s sparse population.
News18 earlier had reported that the aim is to add muscle to India’s soft power and help senior Army commanders devise informed military strategies for the region.
The Army is also using artificial intelligence-based solutions for translation of various scripts or literature.
LATEST MOVE
As per sources in the Army, the force had recently got the approvals to induct Mandarin-trained personnel into the Territorial Army.
The sources said that with the “recalibration of the Army’s strategic outlook towards the Northern borders,” the force has upscaled its Chinese languages training and language experts form a critical part of its overall strategy.
Several measures have been taken over the last few years to sharpen the Army personnel’s Mandarin expertise, the sources added.
“The aim is to empower junior and senior military commanders to engage with PLA personnel as and when the situation arises,” a source said, adding the improved Mandarin skills will empower Army personnel convey their points better.
The source added that Chinese languages experts are a functional requirement—both at the tactical level as well as at the operational and strategic level for providing analysis—while catering to futuristic needs.
“More Mandarin experts are required for better exchange of viewpoints and to understand the PLA’s version of their activities during various interactions such as corps commander level talks, flag meetings, joint exercises, Border Personnel Meetings, among others,” the source said.
The Army has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with the Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU), Central University of Gujarat (CUG), Shiv Nadar University (SNU) to provide Mandarin proficiency to its personnel.
“In-house efforts include increasing the vacancies at the Army’s Training School at Pachmarhi and the Delhi-based School of Foreign Languages. Proficiency-level testing of trained soldiers is being conducted through civilian institutes such as the Delhi-based Langma School of Languages to assess competencies of linguists as per international standards,” the source quoted above said.
Several courses in Mandarin are also being run at the Language Schools at the Northern, Eastern and Central Command.
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News, watch Top Videos and Live TV here.
Comments
0 comment