Expansion of the NCC

Recently, the Ministry of Defence has approved the proposal to expand the National Cadet Corps (NCC) in border and coastal districts.

The expansion of the NCC was announced by the Prime Minister in his Independence Day speech.
Restructuring of the NCC was one of the key recommendations of the Committee of Experts (CoE) headed by Lt Gen DB Shekatkar (Retd) in 2016.

Shekatkar Committee

The Ministry of Defence under the chairmanship of Lt. Gen (Retd) DB Shekatkar had constituted a committee to recommend measures to enhance combat capability and rebalance defence expenditure of the armed forces which submitted its report in December 2016.
Few Recommendations:
- Closure of Military Farms and Army Postal Establishments in peace locations.
- Enhancement in standards for recruitment of clerical staff and drivers in the Army.
- Improving the efficiency of the National Cadet Corps.
- Recommended a roll-on defence budget to have enough capital expenditure available for modernisation as against the present practice of surrendering unspent capital budget at the end of each financial year.

Expansion: A total of one lakh cadets from 173 border and coastal districts will be inducted into the NCC of which one-third of them will be girls.
- The expansion plan would be implemented in partnership with the States.
Training and Administration: The Army will provide training and administrative support to the NCC units located in the border areas, Navy to the units in the coastal areas and Indian Air Force to the units close to Air Force stations.
Benefit: It will provide trained manpower for disaster management and skill training to youth for making their career in the armed forces.
- It will increase youth’s interest in careers in Navy, Coast Guard and also Merchant shipping avenues.
- In the border area, the trained cadets can play supporting roles to the Armed forces in various forms.

The NCC was formed in 1948 (on the recommendation of H. N. Kunzru Committee-1946), and has its roots to British era uniformed youth entities like University Corps or University Officer Training Corps.
- Currently it has a strength of around 14 lakh cadets from Army, Navy and Air Force wings.
The NCC falls under the purview of the Ministry of Defence and is headed by a Director General of three-star military rank.
It enrolls cadets at high school and college level and also awards certificates on completion of various phases.
- The NCC cadets receive basic military training at various levels and also have academic curriculum basics related to Armed forces and their functioning.
- Various training camps, adventure activities and military training camps are an important aspect of NCC training.
Significance: NCC cadets have played an important role over the years in relief efforts during various emergency situations.
- During the ongoing pandemic, over 60,000 NCC cadets have been deployed for voluntary relief work in coordination with district and state authorities across the country.