NEW DELHI: Lt-General Manoj Pande will take over as the next Army chief from General M M Naravane on April 30, becoming the first-ever officer commissioned in the Corps of Engineers to head the 12-lakh strong force.
The government has gone by the seniority principle in announcing the next Army chief, with Lt-Gen Pande being the senior most Lt-Gen in the force. The country’s next chief of defence staff (CDS), however, is yet to be announced, well over four months after Gen Bipin Rawat’s untimely death in a helicopter crash, though Gen Naravane is considered to be the frontrunner. A CDS can serve till the age of 65, while the Army, Navy and IAF chiefs serve till 62 or for three years, whichever is earlier.
Lt-Gen Pande, who turns 60 on May 6, will take over as the Army chief at a time when there are still no signs of any de-escalation in the almost two-year long military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh.
He is well-versed with China, having first served as the 4 ‘Gajraj’ Corps commander in the north-east, which looks after both the Line of Actual Control as well as counter-insurgency operations, and then later as the general officer commanding-in-chief of the Eastern Command from June 2021 to Jan 2022 before he became the Army vice-chief.
There is also the drastic need to slash the non-operational flab in the Army, which has a skewed 84:16 ratio in terms of revenue expenditure (day-to-day operating costs and salaries) relative to the capital one for modernization.
“Lt-Gen Pande will have to take forward the transformation of the manpower-intensive Army into a lean, mean and future-ready fighting machine, with a much better teeth-to-tail ratio,” a senior officer said.
Commissioned in the Corps of Engineers (The Bombay Sappers) in December 1982, Lt-Gen Pande opted for the `general cadre’, which includes the `combat arms’ of infantry, armoured corps and mechanized infantry, on his promotion to the rank of Brigadier from Colonel.
Officers from `combat-support arms’ like artillery, air defence, engineers, aviation and signals can apply for the `general cadre’ at that rank. “Only some are approved for the `general cadre’ stream. The Army has been commanded by officers only from the infantry, armoured corps and artillery till now,” another officer said.
As a `general cadre’ Brigadier, Lt-Gen Pande went on to command an infantry brigade along the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan in J&K, and then a mountain division in the high-altitude area of western Ladakh as a Major General.
Apart from extensive experience in dealing with the two long unsettled borders with both China and Pakistan, Lt-Gen Pande was also the chief of the unified Andaman & Nicobar Command (ANC) from June 2020 to May 2021.
With ANC being India’s only `geographical’ or `theatre’ command till now, with all Army, Navy, IAF and Coast Guard forces under a single commander, this will stand him in good stead as the country moves towards integrated commands in the next few years.
The government has gone by the seniority principle in announcing the next Army chief, with Lt-Gen Pande being the senior most Lt-Gen in the force. The country’s next chief of defence staff (CDS), however, is yet to be announced, well over four months after Gen Bipin Rawat’s untimely death in a helicopter crash, though Gen Naravane is considered to be the frontrunner. A CDS can serve till the age of 65, while the Army, Navy and IAF chiefs serve till 62 or for three years, whichever is earlier.
Lt-Gen Pande, who turns 60 on May 6, will take over as the Army chief at a time when there are still no signs of any de-escalation in the almost two-year long military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh.
He is well-versed with China, having first served as the 4 ‘Gajraj’ Corps commander in the north-east, which looks after both the Line of Actual Control as well as counter-insurgency operations, and then later as the general officer commanding-in-chief of the Eastern Command from June 2021 to Jan 2022 before he became the Army vice-chief.
There is also the drastic need to slash the non-operational flab in the Army, which has a skewed 84:16 ratio in terms of revenue expenditure (day-to-day operating costs and salaries) relative to the capital one for modernization.
“Lt-Gen Pande will have to take forward the transformation of the manpower-intensive Army into a lean, mean and future-ready fighting machine, with a much better teeth-to-tail ratio,” a senior officer said.
Commissioned in the Corps of Engineers (The Bombay Sappers) in December 1982, Lt-Gen Pande opted for the `general cadre’, which includes the `combat arms’ of infantry, armoured corps and mechanized infantry, on his promotion to the rank of Brigadier from Colonel.
Officers from `combat-support arms’ like artillery, air defence, engineers, aviation and signals can apply for the `general cadre’ at that rank. “Only some are approved for the `general cadre’ stream. The Army has been commanded by officers only from the infantry, armoured corps and artillery till now,” another officer said.
As a `general cadre’ Brigadier, Lt-Gen Pande went on to command an infantry brigade along the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan in J&K, and then a mountain division in the high-altitude area of western Ladakh as a Major General.
Apart from extensive experience in dealing with the two long unsettled borders with both China and Pakistan, Lt-Gen Pande was also the chief of the unified Andaman & Nicobar Command (ANC) from June 2020 to May 2021.
With ANC being India’s only `geographical’ or `theatre’ command till now, with all Army, Navy, IAF and Coast Guard forces under a single commander, this will stand him in good stead as the country moves towards integrated commands in the next few years.
