Lt Gen Manoj Pande to succeed Gen M M Naravane as new Chief of Indian Army

Gen Naravane's tenure will come to an end on April 30

Lt Gen Manoj C Pande will succeed Gen M M Naravane as the new chief of the Indian Army, the government announced on Monday.

Lt Gen Pande, presently serving as the Vice Chief of the Army Staff, is going to be the first commander from the Corps of Engineers to take over as the Chief of Army Staff, as all his predecessors were from the infantry, artillery and armoured regiments of the Indian Army. He will take over as the new Chief of Army Staff (COAS) on April 30 – the day Gen Naravane's tenure as the chief of the 1.3-million-strong force would come to its end.

Gen Naravane is considered among the frontrunners for the post of the Chief of Defence Staff. The post fell vacant when Gen Bipin Rawat, the first Chief of Defence Staff of the country, died in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu on December 8 last, along with his wife and 12 others.

The appointment committee of the Union Cabinet cleared the appointment of Lt Gen Pande during a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Lt Gen Pande took over as the Vice Chief of the Army Staff on February 1 last. He was earlier heading the Eastern Army Command tasked with guarding India's Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh sectors. He also served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command, which is the country's only tri-services command, in the past.

He was commissioned on December 24, 1982 in the Corps of Engineers (The Bombay Sappers) of the Indian Army. He served in a variety of command, staff and instructional appointments during his service spanning over 39 years.

The command appointments of Lt Gen Pande include Command of an Engineer Brigade in the Western Theatre, as part of Strike Corps and an Infantry Brigade along with India's Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir. His other important command appointments include a Mountain Division in the high-altitude area of the Western Ladakh and Command of a Corps, deployed along the LAC and in counter-insurgency operations area of Eastern Command.

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