Lieutenant General Manoj Pande has been named as the next chief of the Indian Army. He will replace incumbent COAS (Chief of the Army Staff) General MM Naravane, who is due to retire by the end of this month.
Lt Gen Manoj Pande, who is Vice Chief of the Army, will become the senior-most army officer when General Naravane retires on April 30.
An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Lt Gen Pande was commissioned into the Bombay Sappers, one of the regiments in the Corps of Engineers in December 1982. He has attended the Staff College, Camberley in the United Kingdom, after which he returned to India and was appointed Brigade Major of a mountain brigade and a corps in the Northeast.
In February this year, Lt Gen Pande took over as the Army’s vice chief. Before that, he was heading the Kolkata-based HQs Eastern Command.
Lt Gen Pande is one of the prime proponents of greater integration of technology along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Sources told The Print that he will bring with him both operational and logistics experience.
He also led a mountain division in Ladakh and a corps in the north east.
Lt General Pande was the commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command before he took charge of the Eastern Command.
(With inputs from agencies)
