General Upendra Dwivedi Takes Charge As Indian Army Chief, General Manoj Pande Retires

General Upendra Dwivedi has taken over as the Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) from General Manoj Pande, who took charge in May 2022.

Prior to this, General Dwivedi was the Vice Chief of the Army Staff. He is the recipient of Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal, and three General Officer Commanding-in-Charge (GOC-in-C) commendation cards.

A resident of Madhya Pradesh, he studied in Sainik School Rewa, and joined the National Defence Academy (NDA) in January 1981. He was commissioned into the 18th Battalion of the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles in December 1984, which he later commanded in Kashmir valley and the deserts of Rajasthan.

From his school days, he grew up as an outstanding sportsman and excelled in both the NDA and the Indian Military Academy (IMA), where he won ‘Blue’ in physical training. He continued to excel post commissioning and received a gold medal in the physical training course.

General Dwivedi has a unique distinction of balanced exposure along the northern, western and eastern theatres, in varied terrain and operational environment including deserts, high altitude, riverine, built-up area, northeast, and Jammu and Kashmir.

He commanded his battalion in counter-terrorist operations in Kashmir valley and in Rajasthan’s deserts. He has been the Inspector General Assam Rifles (IGAR-GOC) and Sector Commander of the Assam Rifles in intense counter-terrorist operations, and held many other staff and command appointments in the northeast where he pioneered the first ever compendium on Indo-Myanmar border management.

Subsequently, General Dwivedi commanded the Rising Star Corps along the western front and the Northern Army from 2022-2024 in an extremely challenging operational environment. He provided strategic guidance and operational oversight for planning and executing sustained operations along the northern and western borders, besides orchestrating dynamic counter-terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

He was involved in modernising and equipping the largest command of the Indian Army, where he steered the induction of indigenous equipment as part of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. He has varied staff exposures which includes handling conventional operations of the Armoured Brigade in the plains of Punjab, providing logistical support to a Mountain Division in the northeast along the northern borders, and operations of a Strike Corps in deserts.

General Dwivedi’s two overseas tenures include Somalia, as part of HQ UNOSOM II, and Seychelles as Military Advisor to the government there.

He is married to Sunita Dwivedi, a Science graduate. Sunita Dwivedi has been associated with Aarushi, an institute for differently abled children in Bhopal. The couple are blessed with two daughters. General Dwivedi is a skilled yoga practitioner.

The outgoing army chief, General Pande, was the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to become the Chief of the Army Staff. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, General Pande was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers in December 1982. He commanded an engineer regiment during Operation Parakram in the Pallanwala sector along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.