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Gen. Bipin Rawat was India’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). Prior to taking over as the CDS, he served as 57th and last Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee as well as 26th Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army.
In December 2015, the Government appointed Gen. Rawat as the Army Chief by superseding two senior officers Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi and Lt. Gen. P.M. Hariz.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Gen. Bipin Rawat at the National War Memorial in New Delhi on the 73rd Independence Day.
Gen. Bipin Rawat took charge as the Army Chief on December 31, 2015 from Gen. Dalbir Singh. He was commissioned into 5/11 Gorkha Rifles in December 1978 from Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun where he was awarded the ‘Sword of Honour’. He hails from Saina village in Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand and is the son of former Vice Chief of Army Lt Gen Lakshman Singh Rawat.
In this July 16, 2019 photo, then Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat is seen with former Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh and former Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa.
As Army Chief, Gen. Bipin Rawat initiated the largest restructuring and transformation exercise of the Army since Independence with four major thrust areas: restructuring of Army Headquarters, force restructuring, cadre review of officers and review of terms and conditions of Junior Commissioned Officers (JCO) and Other Ranks (OR).
In this September 18, 2017 photo, then Army Chief Gen. Bipin Singh Rawat along with his wife Madhulika Rawat attends the funeral of Marshal of the Indian Air Force, Arjan Singh at Brar Square in New Delhi.
Gen. Bipin Rawat had served as a Brigade Commander of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) in 2008 during which he received laurels for the conduct of the operations. He was twice awarded the Force Commander’s Commendation in U.N. missions.
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