Army plans to scale up Agniveer intake to over 1 lakh a year to address troop shortfall

In a significant move to address a growing personnel deficit, the Indian Army is preparing to increase its annual Agniveer recruitment to more than 1 lakh soldiers, up from the current 45,000–50,000 intake. The proposal, understood to be under active consideration, comes as the force grapples with an overall shortfall of nearly 1.8 lakh soldiers.

The Indian Express reported that the deficit has widened over the past four years, largely due to recruitment being suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, while 60,000–65,000 soldiers continued to retire annually. This gap predates the launch of the Agnipath scheme in June 2022, which introduced a four-year tenure system for new recruits and replaced the traditional mode of enlistment.

When the scheme was rolled out, around 46,000 positions were sanctioned across the Army, Navy and Indian Air Force, with 40,000 allocated to the Army. Plans at the time envisaged a gradual increase in Agniveer recruitment over four years, with the Army’s intake capped at 1.75 lakh by 2025. The Navy and the Air Force were similarly expected to scale up their numbers to nearly 28,700.

However, even after Agnipath’s introduction, the annual outflow of 60,000–65,000 retiring soldiers has continued, leading to an additional shortfall of roughly 20,000–25,000 personnel each year. The Army is now looking at sharply increasing the yearly recruitment of Agniveers from this year onwards to keep pace with ongoing retirements and the first batch of Agniveers set to complete their tenure in late 2026.

Sources indicated that the revised plan aims to bring in around 1 lakh Agniveers annually over the next few years. The expansion will be calibrated with the training capacity of regimental centres to ensure that standards are maintained and infrastructure is not overstretched.

Responding to queries, the Army confirmed that 1.75 lakh Agniveers would be recruited in the first four years of the scheme, ending in 2025. “Recruitment of Agniveers will be undertaken to cater for existing deficiencies and accordingly, the vacancies will be released,” the Army said.

With regular troops recruited before 2020 continuing to retire at the established rate and Agniveer separations beginning from 2026, the personnel deficit is expected to remain under pressure. The planned expansion in vacancies over the next three to five years is aimed at offsetting both the routine outflow and the new cycle of Agniveer exits, while gradually reducing the overall shortfall.