Lt Gen Manoj Pande appointed as next Vice Chief of Army Staff

The Government of India on January 18, 2022, gave its approval to the proposal for the appointment of Eastern Army Commander Lieutenant General Manoj Pande as the next Vice Chief of Army Staff.

The Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Manoj Pande will be the next Army Vice Chief. He will be the successor to Lt Gen CP Mohanty who is scheduled to superannuate on January 31, 2022.

The news regarding the appointment of the new Army Vice Chief has come as the appointment of the next Chief of Defence Staff is still awaited. The post of the Chief Defence Staff (CDS) got vacant after the death of General Bipin Rawat in a chopper crash on December 8, 2021.

Government of India approves the proposal for the appointment of Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Manoj Pande as the next Vice Chief of Army Staff: Sources

(file pic) pic.twitter.com/htwM0lTtJG

— ANI (@ANI) January 18, 2022

Who is Lt Gen Manoj Pande?

1. General Manoj Pande was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers (The Bombay Sappers) in December 1982.

2. Pande is a graduate of Staff College, Camberley (United Kingdom). He also attended the Higher Command Course at Army War College, Mhow and the National Defence College at Delhi.

3. Pande, during his 37 years of distinguished service, has taken an active part in Operation Parakram and Operation Vijay.

Lt Gen Manoj Pande: Duties and responsibilities

Lt Gen Manoj Pande commanded an Engineer Regiment along the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir, a Mountain Division in the high-altitude area of Western Ladakh, an Engineer Brigade as part of the Strike Corps, and a Corps deployed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) as also in the Counter Insurgency Operations area in the Northeast.

He has also tenanted important staff appointments and was posted as the Chief Engineer at the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Pande was the Director-General at Army Headquarters dealing with the subjects of ceremonial, discipline and welfare.

What is the role of Vice Chief of Army Staff?

The Vice Chief of Army Staff is the Deputy head and is the second-highest-ranking officer of the Indian Army. VCOAS is a Principal Staff Officer at the Army Headquarters in Delhi.

The office of VCOAS is held by a senior officer in the rank of Lieutenant General, of the Commander-in-Chief (Army Commander) grade. Notably, ten of the 40 Vice Chiefs have gone on to head the Indian Army as the Chief of the Army Staff.