New army chief Lt Gen Manoj Pande to take over on May 1
text_fields
The Union Government of India has named Lieutenant General Manoj Pande as the next chief of the Indian Army. He will take over office on May 1st as General Manoj Mukund Naravane completes his tenure on April 30.
He is the most senior officer after Naravane.
The Indian Army shared the news on Twitter with the hashtag #InStrideWithTheFuture. Pande will be the 29th Chief of the Army Staff. He is the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to become the Chief of Army Staff, reported ANI.
Being an alumnus of the prestigious National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla, and the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun, he joined the Bombay Sappers in December 1982 after graduating from the IMA. In a military career of 39 years, he held prestigious posts and assignments.
Pande has commanded an engineer brigade in the western theatre, an infantry brigade along the Line of Control (LoC), a mountain division in the Ladakh sector, and a corps in the northeast. He also served as the Eastern Army Commander and later took over as the army's vice chief.
From June 2020 to May 2021, he served as the commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command (CINCAN).