India: Lt. General Anil Chauhan (retd) has been appointed as the country's joint army chief

 

Lt General Anil Chauhan (Retd) has been appointed as the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the country. The order also clarified that the Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) will be an Army officer, ending all speculations about the bifurcation between the posts of CDS and Secretary DMA. As a Brigadier, he was the first officer to handle the Directorate of Indian Army Veterans (DIAV).

An alumnus of the National Defense Academy, Lt Gen Chauhan joined the Army's 11 Gurkha Rifles in 1981. The senior military officer was in charge of an infantry division in the critical Baramulla sector of the Northern Command and later a corps in the northeastern sector.

As Director General of Military Operations, he was also part of the United Nations Mission to Angola. He was appointed Eastern Army Commander in September 2019 and retired from service on 31 May 2021.

Lt Gen Chauhan, 61, took over from Lt Gen VG Khandare (retd) as Military Adviser at the National Security Council Secretariat after he retired from the Army as Eastern Army Commander. Having held several command, staff and instrumental appointments for over 40 years, he reaches the highest military rank after a distinguished career spanning over 40 years with extensive experience in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the North Eastern states.

Earlier this month, Lieutenant General Anil Chauhan along with General Rawat's daughter Tarini Rawat and other dignitaries attended the renaming ceremony of Kibitu military station as General Bipin Rawat Military Garrison. He is from the same unit as General Rawat. The new appointment comes nearly 10 months after the country's first Joint Chiefs of Staff (CDS), General Bipin Rawat, was killed in a helicopter crash.