The 76th batch of Indian Police Service officers (Regular Recruits) began their training at the SVPNPA in November 2023. They undertook a diverse curriculum including indoor subjects such as new criminal laws, information and communication technology and forensics, and outdoor activities like drills and weapon training. This journey of the trainee IPS officers will reach the penultimate point on September 20th, 2024, when they pass out via the “Dikshant” parade at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA) in Hyderabad.
As many as 219 officers (58 women officers) were trained in the academy and of them, 12 opted for administrative services. Of the trained officers — 188 officers are from India, and others are from Nepal, Bhutan, Mauritius and Maldives in the current batch undergoing the comprehensive training program. The academy so far trained 6,379 officers, including foreigners. This year’s batch has seen an increase in aspirants with medicine and engineering backgrounds. “We found that 109 were engineers, 28 from arts, 22 from science, 8 from commerce & 4 from law,” said SVPNPA Director Amit Garg (1993-batch IPS officer).
How was the training conducted?
The first phase of 45-week training covered various topics including the newly introduced laws such as Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam; investigation, criminology and police management in India, attitudes, ethics and human rights, internal security and public order and forensics. The outdoor subjects covered physical fitness, weapon training and firing, Yoga, unarmed combat, field craft and tactics and map reading.
The probationers were accustomed to special agencies such as Grey Hounds for jungle survival module, ITBP for rock climbing, Central School of Weapons and Tactics of BSF for special training in advanced weapons, attachment with Indian Army in Jammu and Kashmir, CRPF in LWE counter training, National Forensic Science University (NFSU) and IIM Ahmedabad.
The Joint Director at SVPNPA, Mr. Amit Garg, mentioned, “The probation officers received training in both material and practical ways. There has been a specific concentration on cybercrime and cyber security apart from other priority areas like internal security challenges, drone operations, drug trafficking, dark net, AI and social media, cryptocurrency and financial frauds and implementation of the new criminal laws.”
The probationers were imparted training in internal security challenges, threats from drones, cyber-crimes and security, drug trafficking, cryptocurrency, financial frauds, dark net, and artificial intelligence and will now go for district practical training for 29 weeks before returning to the academy for the second phase of basic course training for a period of nine weeks.
Police officials from Jamtara & Mewat elucidated the trainee officers about cybercrime, given the significant rise in the number of cybercrime cases across the country and the academy laid special focus on training future IPS officers on this matter.
The IPS trainees shall return to the academy for the final nine weeks of training, beginning May 26th, 2025.
