NEW DELHI – The post of Vice Chief of Army Staff (VCOS) fell vacant afterLt. Gen. Manoj Mukund Naravane took charge as India’s 27th Army Chief on 31December 2019. Lt. Gen. Saini is the recipient of several awards for bothgallantry and distinguished service.
India will have a new Vice Chief of Army Staff (VCOS) starting 25 January2020link.Lt. Gen. S.K. Saini, who is currently the Indian Army’s Southern Commandchief with headquarters in Pune, will take over as the army’s 41st ViceChief.
Lt. Gen. Saini’s appointment as VCOS is the first such order issued by therecently created Department of Military AffairslinkofIndia’s Ministry of Defence, which is headed by the country’s first Chiefof Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat, the news agency ANI reports.
He takes over from Gen. Manoj Mukund Naravane, the present army chief.
A 38-year army officer, Lt. Gen. Saini is an alumnus of the Sainik (Army)School in Kapurthala in the Punjab Provincelinkandthe National Defence Academy (NDA). He was commissioned in the Jat Regimentin June 1981.
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During his career in the army, he has commanded a battalion, a mountainbrigade, a counter-insurgency force in Jammu and Kashmir, a corps inIndia’s western theatre, and headed the Southern Army Command.
Saini was also a weapons instructor at the training centre of the NationalSecurity Guards (NSG), Commandant of the Indian Military Academy (IMA), anda senior officer of the National Defence College in New Delhi.
He has also served as Deputy Chief (Military Personnel) in the Iraq-KuwaitUN Mission; took part in peacekeeping operations in Mongolia and acounter-terrorism exercise in Australia.
