Union government announce its decision to appoint Lieutenant General Manoj Pande as the next chief of the Indian Army. The 29th Army chief will be the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to become the Chief of Army Staff.
An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Lieutenant General Manoj Pande was commission into the Corps of Engineers in December 1982.
Lt General Manoj Pande command an engineer regiment during Operation Parakram in the Pallanwala sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.
Operation Parakram follow the December 2001 terror attack on Parliament.
Lt General Pande has command an engineer brigade in the western theatre, an infantry brigade along LoC.
Lieutenant General Manoj Pande also led a mountain division in the Ladakh sector and a corps in the northeast.
Lieutenant General Manoj Pande was the commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command before he took charge of the Eastern Command.
As Army Vice Lieutenant General Manoj Pande was appoint as the new chief of the Indian Army as incumbent Army Chief General MM Naravane is due to retire by the end of this month.
Lieutenant General Manoj Pande will take over the reign as he is the senior-most in the force after General MM Naravane.
Lieutenant General Manoj Pande became the senior most after a few top officers retire in the last three months.
The incumbent Lt Gen Raj Shukla who was commanding Army’s training command (ARTRAC) retire on 31st March 2022.
A few other senior-most leaders had retire by January end.
Lieutenant General C.P. Mohanty and Lt Gen Y.K. Joshi retire on 31st January 2022.
Lieutenant General Manoj Pande has held many prestigious command and staff assignments in conventional as well as counter-insurgency operations in all types of terrain.
For his illustrious service, Lieutenant General Manoj Pande has confer the Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, and Vishisht Seva Medal, the Chief of Army Staff Commendation and the GOC-in-C Commendation.
As General Manoj Mukund Naravane whose 28-month tenure concludes on 30th April 2022,
Lieutenant General Manoj Pande head the Eastern Army Command, holding the responsibility of guarding the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
This news of the next Army Chief’s appointment comes at a time when India is also looking for its new Chief of Defense Staff.
The top post has vacant since the tragic demise of the country’s first CDS Gen Bipin Rawat in a helicopter crash December 2021.
