Lieutenant General Manoj Pande will follow General Manoj Mukund Naravane, who will leave office on April 30. Lieutenant General Pande is the first engineer to be appointed to the highest military position.
After a few top commanders resigned in the last three months, Pande became the most senior. Lt Gen Raj Shukla, the current commander of the Army's training command (ARTRAC), resigned on March 31. By the end of January, a few more top executives had left the company. On January 31, Lt Gen CP Mohanty and Lt Gen YK Joshi retired.
By the end of March, the force had been restructured as well. At Shimla, Lt Gen SS Mahal assumed charge of ARTRAC. Lt Gen C Bannappa was appointed as the new commander.
As Adjutant General of the Army, Lt Gen C Bansi Ponnappa assumed command. Lt Gen JP Mathews was named General Officer Commanding of the Uttar Bharat region.
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 led 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 weaponry to the western frontier.
Lt General Pande has commanded an engineer brigade in the western theatre, an infantry brigade along the LoC, and a mountain division throughout his 39-year military career.
