Vice Chief of the Army, Lieutenant General Manoj Mukund Naravane, is set to be the next Army Chief, official sources confirmed to The Indian Express on Monday. He will succeed General Bipin Rawat, who will retire on December 31. The government has stuck to the seniority principle in appointing Lt Gen Naravane as the next chief as he is the senior-most officer in the Army after Gen Rawat. He will serve till April 2022, when he turns 62. Lt Gen Naravane had taken charge as the Vice Chief on September 1; before that, he headed the Eastern Command of the Indian Army. In his nearly four decades in the Army, Lt Gen Naravane has worked in key appointments in active counterinsurgency environments, both in the Northeast and in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Army. He was also part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka during Operation PAWAN in 1987. He has been decorated with the Param Vishisht Seva Medal and the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal during his career. He was also the Inspector General of Assam Rifles (North) in Nagaland. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Lt Gen Naravane was commissioned into the 7th Battalion of The Sikh Light Infantry Regiment in June 1980. Hailing from Pune, his father, Mukund Naravane, had retired from the Indian Air Force, and his mother, Sudha Naravane, was a writer and news broadcaster with All Indian Radio in Pune. She died last year. Lt Gen Naravane is alumnus of the Jnana Prabodhini Prashala in Pune and has had a keen interest in painting and sports since school days. His friend from Jnana Prabodhini, Dr Milind Modak, an orthopaedic surgeon, said, “I remember from the schooldays that he has been a very composed and balanced person. (He) took keen interest in painting and sports. I don’t remember him impulsively reacting to anything. After he joined the National Defence Academy, we always used to believe that he would do some magnificent in life. All of us from his friend circle and Jnana Prabodhini family are very proud and happy after hearing the news.” The Army Chief retires either at the age of 62 or after serving for three years at the post. The outgoing Army Chief, Gen Rawat, is considered one of the frontrunners to become the first Chief of Defence Staff, a post announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day address this year.
