Chief of the Naval Staff and Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee, Admiral Nirmal Verma, accompanied by his wife Madhulika Verma, president of Naval Wives’ Welfare Association, arrived here on Sunday on a three-day farewell visit to the Command.
The Chief of the Naval Staff will interact with Defence Civilians, Officers, and Men of the Eastern Naval Command, and review the Eastern Fleet at sea during his stay here.
Admiral Verma will retire from the Navy after 42 years of distinguished service by the end of this month. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, he was commissioned into the Indian Navy in July 1970. He is a specialist in Communications and Electronic Warfare and is a graduate of the Royal Naval Staff College, Greenwich, United Kingdom, and the US Naval War College. Prior to becoming the CNS, Admiral Verma was the Commander-in-Chief of Eastern Naval Command, responsible for Bay of Bengal and South-East Asia.
Other important Flag Appointments held by him included the Vice Chief of the Naval Staff, Chief of Personnel and Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Policy and Plans) at Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (Navy), and Flag Officer Commanding Maharashtra Naval Area.
According to a spokesman of the Navy, on assuming office as the Chief of the Naval Staff in August 2009, Admiral Verma focused on Coastal Security and capability augmentation as his key result areas. It was during his tenure that the Government of India assigned the overall responsibility of maritime security, including coastal and offshore security, to the Indian Navy. A large number of initiatives were launched to enhance security of the coastal areas from asymmetric threats from the sea. His tenure also saw the induction of new platforms into the Navy and the creation of several new operational assets, including the Shivalik Class Stealth Frigates, Fleet Tankers Deepak and Shakti , six indigenously built Water Jet Fast Attack Craft, and induction of the MiG-29K Carrier-borne Combat Aircraft, and INS Chakra , an ‘Akula’ Class nuclear-powered attack submarine, earlier this year.
