Who is Lt. Manoj Kumar Pandey? All you need to know about the New Army Chief of India

Srinagar, Apr 18: Army Vice Chief Lieutenant General Manoj Pande will replace M M Naravane as the next chief of the Indian Army. He will assume office on May 1. He is the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to become the Chief of Army Staff.

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 served as the Chief Engineer at the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

During his long and distinguished service spanning over 39 years, he has served in a variety of Command, Staff and Instructional appointments. The Command appointments of Lt Gen Manoj C 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 & Kashmir.

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.

In the rank of Lt General, the officer has held important appointments including that of Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman & 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.

Lt Gen Manoj C Pande is an alumnus of National Defence Academy and has undergone courses at Staff College, Camberley (UK), Army War College, Mhow and National Defence College, New Delhi.

Family

Pande was born to Dr. C G Pande, a consulting Psychotherapist who retired as the Head of the Department of Psychology of the Nagpur University, and Prema, an announcer and host with the All India Radio. The family hails from Nagpur. He married Archana Salpekar, gold medalist from Govt Dental College and Hospital, Nagpur on 3 May 1987.

Honours and decorations

He is a recipient of the Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, and the Vishisht Seva Medal.

Manoj has been awarded the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Commendation Card and two GOC-in-C commendation cards.