There will be a new uniform, insignia, for the country’s first-ever Chief of Defence General Bipin Rawat, who will take charge on January 1, 2020 in New Delhi. Top officials of the Indian Army clarified that Rawat has not retired from his service and he continues as CDS. “He has demitted the office of the Chief of Army Staff, he will take over as country’s first CDS on Wednesday,” they added. The new CDS will be wearing a new uniform which has been specially designed for a newly created post.

According to the Ministry of Defence, the new uniform will be Olive Green and will have all components of the uniforms of the three services’. “The colour of the CDS uniform will represent his parent service. There will be an insignia of two crossed swords; there is an eagle, an anchor and an Ashok symbol above it. The cap that the new CDS will wear is also going to be different and will represent the three services through badges and accomplishments.

Also, a maroon patch with anchor, sword and eagle representing all three services will replace the baton on the shoulder to signify the ranks. While the service ribbons will remain the same, there will be no lanyard on the uniform.

The CDS who will be a 4-star general and head the new Department of Military Affairs will have his official residence at 3, Kamraj Marg, New Delhi. As Army chief Rawat had focussed on the restructuring, weapon modernisation and non-contact warfare, and the new chief will take this forward to make the Indian Army as leaner and meaner.

Last week, through amendments made to the Army, Navy and Air Force rules, the new CDS will serve till the age of 65. According to the existing government rules, the service chiefs can serve up to the age of 62 or for three years, whichever is earlier.

New Army Chief

The Indian Army welcomed the 28th Chief of the Army Staff Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane on Tuesday. Naravane is the third Army Chief from the Sikh Light Regiment. Earlier chiefs from the Sikh Regiment were Gen VP Malik and Gen Bikram Singh. With his taking over as the new chief, and Rawat appointed as CDS, interestingly there will two serving four-star Generals for the first time ever in the country.

As has been reported earlier, Naravane was the Vice Chief of the Army Staff since early September and before that he has served as the Eastern Army Commander and Commander of Army Training Command (ARTRAC). An alumnus of the National Defence Academy (NDA) and the Indian Military Academy (IMA), he was commissioned into the 7th Battalion, the Sikh Light Infantry Regiment, in June 1980. He has also commanded a Rashtriya Rifles battalion in Kashmir, and has served in the Assam Rifles.

Besides serving as a Defence Attache in Myanmar, the new chief has been part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka during ‘Operation Pawan’. Naravane has been pushing for indigenisation of defence equipment and has urged the Indian industry to build platforms and systems that would be inducted in the Indian armed forces and based on their performance, can be improved on. About the challenges faced by the Army, the new chief told the media soon after taking over that “Will have to deliberate on it in times to come.”