General Manoj Pande today took over as Chief of Army Staff from General Manoj Mukund Naravane on Saturday (30 April).
General Pande is the 29th Army Chief and the first officer from the Corps of Engineer to helm the top post in the force.
He was commissioned in 1982 in the Corps of Engineers (The Bombay Sappers) of the Indian Army.
“During his long and distinguished service spanning over 39 years, he has served in a variety of Command, Staff and Instructional appointments,” the Defence Ministry said.
The Command appointments of General Manoj Pande include Command of an Engineer Brigade in the Western Theatre, as part of Strike Corps and an Infantry Brigade along with Line-of-Control in Jammu and Kashmir,” the ministry added.
Other important Command appointments where he served 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.
In the rank of Lieutenant General, the officer had held important appointments including that of Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command and as the GOC-in-C of the Eastern Command at Kolkata before getting appointed as the Vice Chief of the Army Staff. An alumnus of National Defence Academy, General Manoj Pande had undergone courses at Staff College, Camberley (UK), Army War College, Mhow and National Defence College, New Delhi
