New Delhi: Army Vice Head Lieutenant General Manoj Pande was named the Indian Army’s new chief on Monday. On May 1, he will take office. He is the first Corps of Engineers officer to be named Chief of Army Staff. He would succeed General Manoj Mukund Naravane, whose 28-month term is set to end on April 30. According to Defense authorities, “the government has decided to pick Lieutenant General Manoj Pande as the next chief of army staff.” Lt Gen Pande was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers in December 1982 after graduating from the National Defence Academy. During Operation Parakram in the Pallanwala area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Line of Control, he commanded an engineer unit. Following the terror assault on Parliament in December 2001, which took India and Pakistan to the verge of war, India launched Operation Parakram, a large-scale mobilisation of troops and weapons to the western frontier.
