Lieutenant general Bipin Rawat will be the new chief of Army Staff while Air Marshal B.S. Dhanoa will be the new chief of Air Staff, Ministry of Defence confirmed on Saturday.
“Government has decided to appoint Lt Gen Bipin Rawat, vice chief of army staff, as the next chief of army staff with effect from afternoon of December 31,” the Defence Ministry said in a tweet.
Rawat will succeed General Dalbir Singh, who will retire at the end of this month while Dhanoa will replace Arup Raha at the helm of Air Staff on December 31.
Lt Gen Rawat, an infantry soldier, superseded senior most army commander Lt Gen Praveen Bakshi, who headed the Eastern Command and was next in line to be the army chief, besides Southern Command Chief P M Hariz. He has handled various operational responsibilities in many areas, including along the LoC with Pakistan, the LAC with China and in the North-East.
He is known for his balanced approach towards soldiering, compassion, and connect with civil society.
His experience as GOC-in-C Southern Army Command in Mechanised Warfare has been focused towards the western borders, in coordination with the other two services, the sources said.
Earlier in the day, Anil Dhasmana and Rajiv Jain were appointed as the next chiefs of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), respectively. Dhasmana and Jain will succeed Rajinder Khanna and Dineshwar Sharma. Both the officers will have a tenure of two years.
