Lt. General Raj Shukla assumed command of the Army Training Command (ARTRAC) at the department headquarters in Shimla. He took over the reins from Lt. Gen. Thimayya who headed ARTRAC November 1, 2018, to April 30, 2020. Present Army Chief of Staff General Manoj Mukund Naravane had held this very same role from December 1, 2017, to September 30, 2018.

Here are some interesting facts about Lt. General Raj Shukla

  1. He belongs to the Regiment of Artillery (ROA)
  2. In doing so, he became the 4th ROA officer to head ARTRAC
  3. He was commissioned into the ROA in 1982
  4. He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy and Indian Military Academy
  5. He has also attended the Defence Services Staff College, the Higher Defence Management Course at the College of Defence Management and the prestigious National Defence College
  6. In the course of his career, he has commanded a medium gun regiment in the Eastern & Western Theatres, an Infantry Brigade deployed for Counter Insurgency Operations, an Infantry Division along the Line of Control in the Kashmir Valley and a Corps along the Western Borders
  7. The General Officer has served two tenures at the Military Operations Directorate and till recently was the Director-General, Perspective Planning at Army HQ.
  8. Lt. Gen Shukla is a graduate of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, and the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.
  9. He has also served in instructional appointments in the School of Artillery and the Indian Military Training Team in Bhutan
  10. The General officer is a qualified aviator and has logged flying hours along the North-East border, especially near Sikkim
  11. Lt.Gen. Shukla is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses and a visiting fellow at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies.
  12. He is a recipient of the Yudh Seva Medal and the Sena Medal.
  13. Lt. Gen. Raj Shukla published a paper called ‘Civil-Military Relations’ that explored how the current civilian leadership could do better while taking strategic military decisions.
  14. He joined the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis in 2009 and stayed on as a Research Fellow until 2010

ARTRAC was founded in 1991 to better organize and formulate the Indian Army’s strategy on all fronts. Whether it be inter-departmental co-operation or a unified human resources policy, things are first thought up at ARTRAC. Here is a list of its duties

  1. Development and dissemination of standardized doctrines for war at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels.
  2. Development of supplementary concepts for the operational functioning of all Arms and Services, with particular reference to the fields of intelligence, psychological operations, electronic warfare, motivation, and training.
  3. Carrying out training inspections/audits of relevant training establishments.
  4. Planning, coordination, supervision, and implementation of training policy and conduct of training courses, at specified training establishments of the Indian Army.
  5. Supervision and monitoring of training in all other training establishments.
  6. Preparation of special training reports and directives.
  7. Development and introduction of advanced training aids, including computer war games and simulators.
  8. Combat development.
  9. To develop doctrinal and training aspects pertaining to UN Peace Keeping Operations.
  10. Interaction with training commands of other services at the conceptual level.
  11. Preparation of training manuals.
  12. Army level exercises and war games
  13. All aspects of HRD.
  14. Control of Indian Army Liaison Officers.
  15. Specified aspects of Nuclear, Biological & Chemical warfare.

 

Adreesh Ghoshal is an automobile engineer with a deep interest in defence technology. He lives in Mumbai


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