On Saturday, Lieutenant General Manoj Pande took charge as the 29th Chief of the Army Staff. Pande took over the reins from the incumbent Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane whose tenure ended today.
Before being appointed the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Manoj Pande was serving as the Vice Chief of the Army Staff. Lt Gen BS Raju will be his successor. Lt Gen BS Raju will take over as the Vice Chief of Army Staff on May 1, 2022.
Lt Gen Manoj Pande has become the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to take charge of the 1.3 million-strong force, as the position has been held by officers from infantry, artillery and armoured regiments.
Lt Gen Manoj Pande is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy. He was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers in December of 1982.
Lt Gen Manoj Pande'sManoj Pande's military career spans 39 years. He has held several prestigious command and staff positions in conventional and counter-insurgency operations in all types of terrain during this time.
He has commanded an engineer regiment during the Operation Parakram in Jammu and Kashmir, an engineer brigade in the western sector, an infantry brigade along the LoC and a mountain division in high-altitude areas of western Ladakh and a corps in the northeast.
Lt General Manoj Pande took over as vice army chief on February 1 of this year. He had replaced Lieutenant General CP Mohanty.
Before taking over as the Vice Chief of the Army Staff, he was heading the Eastern Army Command which was tasked with guarding the Line of Actual Control LAC in the Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh sectors.
Lt Gen Manoj Pande was awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, Vishisht Seva Medal, Chief of Army Staff Commendation and GOC-in-C Commendation for his illustrious service.