The Indian Army has ramped up efforts to improve the Mandarin skills of its personnel, especially those who are posted along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and interact with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China.

In a notification issued on Sunday, the army has invited applications for Mandarin experts' induction into the Territorial Army.

The aim, reported news agency ANI, is to empower junior and senior military commanders to engage with PLA personnel as and when the situation arises. With improved Mandarin skills, Indian Army personnel will be better empowered to convey their points in a much more cogent manner.

Chinese language experts are a functional requirement at tactical level and are required for providing analysis at the operational and strategic level while catering for futuristic needs and maintaining adequate redundancy at all levels.

More Mandarin experts are required for better exchange of their own viewpoints and understanding of the PLA version of their activities during various interactions such as Corps Commander level talks, Flag meetings, Joint Exercises and Border Personnel Meetings, the Indian Army said.

The Indian Army has concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU), Central University of Gujarat (CUG), Shiv Nadar University (SNU) for imparting Mandarin proficiency to its personnel. Simultaneously, in-house efforts include increasing the vacancies at the Army's Training School at Pachamari and the School of Foreign Languages, Delhi.

Proficiency level testing of trained soldiers is being conducted through civilian institutes like Langma School of Languages, New Delhi to assess the competence level of linguists as per international standards.

Apart from these, various Mandarin language courses are being run at the Language Schools at the Northern, Eastern and Central Command.

Indian Army is also using Artificial Intelligence-based solutions for the translation of various scripts or literature. As per inputs, the Indian Army now has a significant pool of Mandarin-qualified personnel drawn from all ranks i.e Officers, JCOs and NCOs.

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