Indian Army personnel will now have the option of studying Chinese language from the University of Ladakh after the Ladakh-based 14th Corp (Fire and Fury Corps) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the varsity on Tuesday.
The University of Ladakh will offer a number of courses for professional development of Indian Army personnel posted in the region. Apart from Chinese language, the other courses are on national security, area studies, international politics, disaster management, Chinese language and remote sensing.
The MoU was signed by Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta, AVSM, YSM, GOC 14 Corps and Dr SK Mehta, Vice Chancellor, University of Ladakh (UoL). Several other senior Army officers and civil dignitaries were also present on the occasion.
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"The signing of Memorandum of Understanding will ensure enrichment of professional education of Indian Army personnel in various disciplines and will result in their overall development," a statement said.
Last year, officials in the security establishment told PTI that the Army had cranked up its efforts to impart Chinese language training to its personnel in the backdrop of a lingering border row in eastern Ladakh. The efforts are part of the overall strategy to ramp up surveillance along the over-3,400-km Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The officials said a slew of measures had been undertaken to improve its in-house Mandarin expertise and the aim was to empower junior and senior military commanders to engage with Chinese military personnel as and when the situation demands.
Various Mandarin language courses are being run at the language schools at the Northern, Eastern and Central commands of the Army, PTI reported.
The Indian Army has already concluded a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU), the Central University of Gujarat (CUG) and the Shiv Nadar University (SNU) for imparting Mandarin to its personnel.
Besides, the Army is also using artificial intelligence-based solutions for the translation of various scripts or literature from the Mandarin language, PTI reported.