The government today designated vice chief of army staff Lt Gen Bipin Rawat as the new Army chief superseding his two senior officers, while vice chief of air staff Air Marshal B S Dhanoa has been made the new chief of the Indian Air Force.
He will succeed General Dalbir Singh as the next Indian Army Chief. Dalbir Singh will retire at the end of this month. Earlier, Rawat was General Officer Commanding in Chief, Southern Command. Prior to this assignment, Rawat was General Officer Commanding Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa Area located in Mumbai.
An alumnus of St Edward’s School, Shimla, Rawat was commissioned in the Fifth Battalion of the Eleven Gorkha Rifles from IMA, Dehradun. He has wide expertise in high altitude warfare and counter-insurgency operations. He has commanded an Infantry battalion, along with the Line of Actual Control in the Eastern Sector; a Rashtriya Rifles Sector and an Infantry Division in the Kashmir Valley.
His other assignments consist of Instructional tenure at Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, General Staff Officer Grade 2, at the Military Operations Directorate; logistics staff officer of a RAPID in central India, Colonel Military Secretary and Deputy Military Secretary in the Military Secretary’s Branch and Senior Instructor, Junior Command Wing.
