It was a proud moment for 22-year-old Gaurav Hridaya, who was adjudged the best all-round cadet at the passing out parade at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) on Saturday.
Besides a silver medal for standing second in order of merit in the regular course, Meerut-based Hridaya received the coveted Sword of Honour from Arunachal Pradesh Governor, General (retired) J.J. Singh for being the ‘Best All Round Gentleman Cadet.'
Sumeet S. Lahane was awarded the gold medal for standing first in the course, while Yogendra Kathayat won the bronze medal.
They were among the 602 cadets who became proud officers of the Army on Saturday after they crossed the “final step” at the hallowed portals of the historic Chetwode building.
Twenty-three other cadets joined the paramilitary force Assam Rifles following a ceremonious parade.
Gen. Singh, an alumnus of the academy in 1964, was the reviewing officer of the parade. He also inspected a guard of honour while choppers showered petals.
One hundred and thirty-two cadets were from Uttar Pradesh, 56 from Haryana and 51 from Uttarakhand.
Besides the 625 cadets, 23 cadets from Bhutan, Mauritius, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka also passed out of the IMA this year.
All cadets were administered the oath by the adjutant of the IMA amid tight security here.
From its first course of 40 cadets, the IMA has so far trained nearly 49,000 officers for the Army.
Later, talking to journalists Gen. Singh termed naxalism as a bigger threat compared to terrorism and asked the new officers to keep themselves updated on advanced methods to deal with such threats.
