General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), launched an online learning platform for the Indian Army nicknamed as “Eklavya” today. This initiative aligns with the Indian Army propelling itself into the “Decade of Transformation” as envisioned by the COAS and also with Indian Army’s theme for 2024 as the “Year of Technology Absorption.”

The Eklavya software platform has been developed under the aegis of Headquarters Army Training Command with Army War College as the sponsor agency. The platform has been developed at zero cost through “Bhaskaracharya National Institute of Space Applications and Geoinformatics” (BISAG-N), Gandhinagar, along with support from Directorate General of Information Systems.

This platform has been hosted on the Army Data Network and features a scalable architecture. This enables Headquarters Army Training Command to seamlessly integrate any number of training establishments of the Indian Army, each capable of hosting an extensive range of courses. Student officers are permitted to register for multiple courses simultaneously. A total of 96 courses by 17 Category ‘A’ Training Establishments of the Indian Army have already been hosted on the platform.

There are three categories of courses hosted on the Eklavya platform. The first category is the ‘Pre-Course Preparatory Capsules’, which has study material for all offline physical courses being conducted at various Category ‘A’ training establishments. The aim is to shift the “basics” to the online courses so that physical courses have more and more contemporary content with a focus on the “application part”. It will help to decongest the existing courses while generating time for adding emerging concepts as per the changing character of warfare. An important aspect is that the students can register for any course at any point of their service. That is, registration for online courses has been delinked from nomination on the physical courses.

The second category of courses are the “appointment or specific assignment-related courses”. Officers on getting posted to some of the specialist appointments have to learn the craft by getting on-the-job training (OJT) and therefore, it takes a finite amount of time for them to function with full efficiency in those appointments. Some of such appointments are in the domain of information warfare, defence land management, financial planning, discipline and vigilance, works, provost, veteran affairs etc. Therefore, it will be beneficial for these officers to undergo an online capsule course in the respective domain as they receive their posting order. The courses in this category will also enable the officers to get domain specialisation in the field of their choice, which will further aid their employment planning.

The third category of courses is the “Professional Development Suite” to include courses on Strategy, Operational Art, Leadership, Organisational Behaviour, Finance, Art of Reading, Power Writing, Emerging Technology etc.

The Eklavya also has the functionality of a searchable “Knowledge Highway”, wherein various journals, research papers and articles etc are uploaded under a single window. The platform will go a long way in encouraging continuous professional military education in the officers, decongest and enrich the existing physical course, preparing officers for specialist appointments and encouraging domain specialisation.