India’s new Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen Manoj Pande is going to be the 29th Chief of Army Staff. He will take over his new office on May 1 after General Manoj Mukund Naravane completes his tenure on April 30. The Vice Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Pande will be the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to become the COAS.
About Lieutenant General Pande
He is an alumnus of the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun and the National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla. In 1982, he was commissioned into the Bombay Sappers after passing out from the IMA. Lt General Pande held prestigious command and staff assignments in counter-insurgency and conventional operations in all types of terrain during his 39-year military career. In the Western theatre, he has commanded an engineer brigade. He has also commanded an infantry brigade along the Line of Control (LoC), in the Ladakh sector and a corps in the North-east region of the country. Before taking over as the army’s vice-chief, he has also served as the Eastern Army Commander. From June 2020 to May 2021, he served as the Andaman and Nicobar Command’s commander-in-chief. After General Narvane retires, he will be the senior-most officer of the Army.
In his 39 years of military service, he has held important and challenging command and staff appointments in different operational environments which include command of an engineers brigade in the western theatre, as part of a strike corps, an infantry brigade along the LoC in J&K, a mountain division in the high altitude area of western Ladakh and command of a corps, deployed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and in counter insurgency operations area of Eastern Command.
“His staff exposures include Brigade Major of a Mountain Brigade in the North East, Assistant Military Secretary (AMS) in Military Secretary’s Branch, Colonel Q of a Mountain Division in High Altitude Area and Brigadier General Staff (Operations) at Headquarters Eastern Command. The General Officer has served as Chief Engineer in the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea. He has also tenanted the appointments of Additional Director General in the Military Operations Directorate at Army Headquarters, Chief of Staff Headquarters Southern Command and Director General Discipline Ceremonial & Welfare at the Army Headquarters,”
