Amid reports of the Indian Army mulling to drop the Brigadier rank, South Western Army Commander Lieutenant General Cherish Mathson said on Thursday that the idea is under deliberation.

“There is a review which is going on but nothing has been decided. It is a thought process at this moment and under deliberation, and we all are to offer our recommendations,” Mathson told reporters on the sidelines of Army-media seminar in Jaipur.

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He refused to divulge any further details.

According to reports, the Indian Army is planning to make the force “leaner and meaner” and is thus working on structural changes including abolition of the rank of Brigadier. The aim of the exercise is aimed at readying a larger talent pool for crucial tasks and bringing down the age of those commanding key formations.

There are about 43,000 officers in the 1.3 million-strong Indian Army. The abolition of a Brigadier rank would mean that a Colonel will directly become a Major General after completing a minimum of 20 years in service.

If the rank is abolished then, according to reports, officers will be able to climb ranks faster than they do now. It has also been proposed that the rank of Lieutenant is immediately assigned to a gentleman cadet in the final year of his or her training. This means that a newly commissioned officer will start with the rank of Captain.

A high-level committee meeting to study various aspects of officer cadre restructuring has already been formed. The committee will submit its report by the end of November.

According to The Times of India, the rank abolition is also aimed at bringing the Army ranks at par with their equivalent ranks in civil services. While it takes an officer in the civil services just 18 years of service to reach the rank of Joint Secretary, it takes 32-33 years for an officer to reach the equivalent rank of a Major General.

A Brigadier is a one-star officer in typically in command of a brigade of around 4,000 or more troops. The rank is equivalent to that of a Commodore in the Indian Navy and Air Commodore of the Indian Air Force.

Brigadier rank is found in the militaries of many countries in the world with some styling it as Brigadier General. But the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force is one of the world’s most advanced armies without a Brigadier rank. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) also does not have the rank of Brigadier. It, however, has an equivalent rank of Colonel Commandant.

India, which had long abolished the rank of Second Lieutenant, is the only major military power in the world with just nine ranks upto the rank of General. In all other armies, including Japan, the United States and Pakistan, commissioned officers begin their military career from the rank of Second Lieutenant.