He had been Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman & Nicobar Command and as the Eastern Army Commander at Kolkata before taking over as the Vice Chief of the Army Staff…reports Asian Lite News
Indian Army’s Vice Chief Lt Gen Manoj C. Pande was on Monday appointed as the next Chief of the Army Staff – the first engineer to hold the top post.
He succeed Gen M.M. Naravane on April 30, 2022.
Born on May 6, 1962, Lt General Pande was commissioned on December 24, 1982 in the Corps of Engineers (The Bombay Sappers), and during his long and distinguished service spanning over 39 years, has served in a variety of command, staff, and instructional appointments.
He has commanded an Engineer Brigade in the Western Theatre as part of Strike Corps, and an Infantry Brigade along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. His other important command appointments include a Mountain Division in the high-altitude area of western Ladakh and a Corps deployed along the LAC and in the counter-insurgency operations area of the Eastern Command.
He had been Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman & Nicobar Command and as the Eastern Army Commander at Kolkata before taking over as the Vice Chief of the Army Staff.
An alumnus of National Defence Academy, he has also studied at Staff College, Camberley (UK), Army War College, Mhow and National Defence College, New Delhi.
3 service chiefs from 61st NDA batch
The three service chiefs of the Indian armed forces will be from the 61st batch of the National Defense Academy (NDA) at Khadakwasla, after the Army chief-designate Lt Gen Manoj C Pande takes over as the 29th Chief of Army Staff on April 30.
Navy Chief Admiral Hari Kumar and Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari are also from the same NDA course, defence officials said.
While Lt Gen Pande is from the Lima squadron, the two other chiefs are from the Juliet squadron of NDA.
Officials said the three chiefs being course-mates would help in further improving the jointness among the three services and it would be of great importance when the three services are working towards the creation of integrated theatre commands.
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