Lt Gen Dhiraj Seth will take over as the next Army Chief on Tuesday, while the Indian Air Force (IAF) will get a new Vice Chief, Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, on Wednesday, marking a change at the top of the military hierarchy.
The appointments come just a month after two other changes at the top. Chief of Defence Staff General NS Raja Subramani and the new Navy Chief, Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, took charge of their respective posts.
Lt Gen Seth, presently serving as the Vice Chief of the Army, will take over on Tuesday as the present incumbent, General Upendra Dwivedi, retires.
Lieutenant General Dhiraj Seth is from the Armoured Corps and was commissioned in December 1986. It is the first time in more than three decades that an Armoured Corps officer will become the Army Chief. The last Armoured Corps officer to hold the post was General Roy Chowdhury, who retired in September 1997.
Lt Gen Seth has extensive experience across the operational, strategic, capability development and institutional domains, contributing significantly to the Indian Army’s combat effectiveness and long-term transformation.
In the IAF, Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit will take over as the next Vice Chief on Wednesday, July 1. Notably, he will be the senior-most officer in line when the present IAF Chief, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, superannuates in October this year.
Air Marshal Dixit, who is currently serving as the Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (CISC)—a tri-services organisation under the Chief of Defence Staff—has been part of the process of promoting jointness and setting up the proposed theatre commands.
He is a fighter pilot and later served as the commanding officer of the Flight Test Squadron at the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE) in Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, with Lt Gen Seth set to become Army Chief, Lt Gen Sandeep Jain, the Southern Army Commander, will replace him as the next Vice Chief of the Indian Army.
Lt Gen Rajesh Pushkar, currently serving as the Commander of the II Strike Corps headquartered in Ambala, has been appointed as the Southern Army Commander. Lieutenant General Mohit Malhotra will be the new South-Western Army Commander, headquartered in Jaipur, replacing Lt Gen Manjinder Singh, who superannuates on Tuesday.
An Armoured Corps officer, Lt Gen Pushkar is scheduled to take over his new appointment in Pune on July 1. Lt Gen Malhotra, also an Armoured Corps officer, will take over the reins of the South-Western Command in Jaipur.
Lt Gen Malhotra is presently posted as the Chief of Staff, Eastern Command, in Kolkata. He was commissioned into the 47th Armoured Regiment in June 1989.
