Even as the appointment of the next Chief of Defence Staff is awaited, the Government on Tuesday approved the proposal for the appointment of Eastern Army Commander Lieutenant General Manoj Pande as the next Vice Chief of Army Staff, sources said on Tuesday.
The Eastern Army Commander will be the next Army Vice Chief, sources told. General Pande would be the successor to Lt Gen CP Mohanty who is scheduled to superannuate on January 31.
General Pande was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers (The Bombay Sappers) in December 1982. He is a graduate of Staff College, Camberley (United Kingdom), and attended the Higher Command Course at Army War College, Mhow, and National Defence College (NDC) at Delhi. During his 37 years of distinguished service, Pande has taken an active part in Operation Vijay and Operation Parakram.
He commanded an Engineer Regiment along the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir, an Engineer Brigade as part of the Strike Corps, an Infantry Brigade along the Line of Control, a Mountain Division in the high-altitude area of western Ladakh and a Corps deployed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) as also in Counter Insurgency Operations area in the northeast.
Lieutenant General Pande has tenanted important staff assignments and was posted as Chief Engineer at the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea. He was Director-General at Army Headquarters dealing with subjects of discipline, ceremonial and welfare.
Lt Gen Manoj Pande Appointed As Next Indian Army Vice Chief. He was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers (The Bombay Sappers) in December 1982. During his 37 years of distinguished service, He has taken an active part in Operation Vijay and Operation Parakram. pic.twitter.com/bpnObohNzt
The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a response from the Centre regarding the intake of only 19 women candidates in the National Defence Academy (NDA) and other military-run schools and colleges for the year 2022. A Bench of Justice Sanjay Kaul and MM Sundresh issued notice to the Centre after it was informed that 19 women candidates would be admitted in NDA out of a total of 370 seats.
The apex court asked the Centre to make its stand clear on restricting the intake of women candidates in NDA to 19, the figure that is the same as last year. It asked the Central government to place the figures on record about the total number of candidates including women who have appeared in the NDA examination 2021, for entrance tests for Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC) and for Rashtriya Military School (RMS). Counsel appearing for petitioner Kush Kalra told the Bench that even for the 2021 examination, the intake of women candidates was limited to 19 for the Army, Navy and Airforce.
Though the Centre had undertaken before the top court to put in place the infrastructural requirements for women candidates by May 2022, it has limited the number of intake to 19 candidates for this year also, the apex court was told.
The Bench said, “The figure is the same as for the 2021 test. Last year, you said that it was due to infrastructure problems that the intake of women will be less. Now, again for the year 2022, you have proposed to take the same number of women candidates. Why have you fixed this figure? You have to explain this. 19 seats cannot be for all times to come. It was only an ad hoc measure.”
The Central government told the Bench that the intake of women candidates in NDA depends on the requirement of force and agreed to file a detailed affidavit within three weeks explaining its stand. The top court gave three weeks to the Centre to file an affidavit and asked the parties to file their rejoinder in two weeks thereafter and listed the matter for further hearing on March 6. Last year, the apex court had directed that female aspirants be allowed to appear in the NDA entrance examination.
The interviewing officer’s purpose is to test the ability of the candidates to fit into the role he is required to play. The key to sure success in the interview, as in any other test, is thorough practice and correct knowledge. One must know his personal particulars as well as the general and technical knowledge.
Some of the topics about which questions may be asked in the PI are:
Personal Particulars
Family Background: A candidate must know exactly his father’s job, his income pay grade, etc. Questions may be asked about other members of the family also.
Educational Career: The candidate must know the exact period he has spent in various educational institutions, the positions he has attained in all exams passed and any distinction achieved.
Extra-Curricular Activities: One must be able to give the details of all the extra-curricular activities he has taken part in.
Games and Sports: Questions may be asked on the games played by the candidate. For example: Which is your best game, size of the ground, your position on the ground, task allotted to this position, equipment used in the sport, whether you have taken part in any tournament, players of all India fame in this game, position of India in this game, and he may ask few questions about some important rules of the game.
Hobbies: One must be prepared to answer some questions on his hobbies.
Interest in Reading Books and Newspapers: one must prepare himself for questions like what type of literature you use, your favorite author and his important works, lessons learnt from these books, newspaper you read regularly, editor of this newspaper, etc.
Reason for selecting a Services Career:
One must prepare himself for questions like why does he wants to join the armed forces and what would one do if one is not selected in the services, etc.
Current Affairs and General Knowledge:
It is in this field that the candidate has to take special pains to prepare himself and show his attainments. He must, therefore, form the habit of reading the daily newspapers and magazines and keep notes under separate headings so he can follow up the same topics in the future.
Technical Knowledge:
The interviewing Officer may like to put questions of technical nature related to the profession for which the candidate is applying. The candidates are advised to read literature in that particular field and be prepared to answer questions of a broad nature. Some questions may be: role of our armed forces, equivalent ranks in the three services, name and ranks of three services chiefs, various gallantry awards, names of various aircraft and naval ships, achievement of our armed forces during operations with the neighboring countries, etc.
“Life is a series of Interviews”
Life is a great struggle and one must not feel shy of facing the interview, whatever position one occupies.
The Indian Army celebrated its 74th Army Day today. Every year, 15 January is commemorated as “Army Day” to remember the occasion when General (later Field Marshal) KM Cariappa took over the command of the Indian Army from General Sir FRR Bucher, the last British Commander-in-Chief in 1949 and became the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of Independent India.
The Indian Army’s theme for the year 2022, “In Stride with the Future”, is an acknowledgement of the increasingly critical role played by niche and disruptive technologies in modern warfare. The Indian Army confronts a plethora of security challenges, conventional and non-traditional, and is looking at Artificial Intelligence (AI), 5G, Robotics and Quantum Technology to find innovative solutions to these emerging challenges.
The Army Day celebrations commenced with the Wreath Laying ceremony at the National War Memorial where the three Service Chiefs paid homage to the bravehearts. In his message to all ranks of the Indian Army, the Chief of the Army Staff, General MM Naravane saluted the supreme sacrifice of all personnel who laid down their lives in the line of duty, reiterating his unstinted support to the Veer Naris and Next of Kin of the fallen soldiers. He assured the Nation that the Indian Army was operationally ready to deal with any adverse situation.
The Chief of the Army Staff reviewed the Army Day Parade at the Cariappa Parade Ground, Delhi Cantonment and awarded 15 Sena Medals (including five posthumously) for individual acts of gallantry and 23 COAS Unit Citations to units for their commendable performance.
The Army Day Parade this year showcased the evolution of various weapon systems held in the Indian Army’s inventory. New and modern weapon systems and platforms were displayed alongside their old counterparts. Centurion tanks were followed by Arjun Main Battle Tanks and TOPAS was succeeded by the BMP-II. Similarly pairs of the 75/24 Indian Field Gun and Dhanush, PMP/PMS and Sarvatra bridges and Tiger Cat & Akash Surface to Air Missiles were also on display.
The parade also included International Sports awardees and seven marching contingents, including mounted horse cavalry. A song titled ‘Maati’, sung by famed singer Hariharan, dedicated to the Army and the Nation, was exclusively released during the event. The Indian Army also unveiled the latest pattern of its combat dress during the parade.
Jai Hind future warriors, in this blog we are going to discuss about the US Ranger badge worn by some officers of the Indian Army. Officers/Soldiers graduating from Ranger School are presented with the Ranger Tab, which is worn on the upper shoulder of the left sleeve of a military uniform.
What is Ranger School?
The United States Army Ranger School is a 62-day small unit tactics and leadership course that develops functional skills directly related to units whose mission is to engage the enemy in close combat and direct fire battles.
Ranger School is the Army’s toughest course and the premier small unit tactics and leadership school. For 62 days, Ranger students train to exhaustion, pushing the limits of their minds and bodies.
The course incorporates three phases (Benning, Mountain, and Swamp) which follow the crawl, walk, run training methodology.
In Benning phase, conducted in and around Camp Rogers and Camp Darby at Fort Benning, Georgia, the students become trained on squad operations and focus on ambush and recon missions, patrol base operations, and planning before moving on to platoon operations.
In Mountain phase conducted at Camp Merrill, in the remote mountains near Dahlonega, Georgia, students develop their skills at the platoon level in order to refine and
Completion of training is in Swamp phase conducted in the coastal swamps at various locations near Camp Rudder, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida
After these three phases, Ranger Students are proficient in leading squad and platoon dismounted operations around the clock in all climates and terrain. Rangers are better trained, more capable, more resilient, and better prepared to serve and lead Soldiers in their next duty
Ranger School is open to soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen in the U.S. Armed Forces, as well as select allied military students.
Now to get a gist of hard is the competition for Indian Armed Forces personnel to enter this course can be stated by a example from the 80s
Gen VK Singh (Retd).
In late 1975, Gen VK Singh (Retd). was one of two officers selected to attend the United States Army Ranger School at Fort Benning, Georgia in the United States. The Ranger course is 62 days long and is aimed at small unit tactics and leadership.
During this course, he was assigned to Whisky company of the 75th Ranger Regiment.
He performed well in the physically-extracting course, which started with over 300 students and ended with only about 90 graduating.
He was graded an honours graduate since he had graded more than 80%.
Since he was a graduate of the Ranger School, he was permitted to wear the coveted Ranger tab on his uniform.
Conclusion
Hope your doubts regarding Rangers Badge were cleared. For more information related to defence exams, SSB Interview stay tuned.
The new uniform of the Indian Army was unveiled at the parade ground on the occasion of the Army Day Parade. Indians celebrate January 15 as Army Day as it was this day in 1949 when late Field Marshal Kodandera Madappa Cariappa took over as the first commander-in-chief of the Indian Army from British General Francis Butcher in 1949.
The new uniform has been designed by a team of eight students and professors from National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). The specifications were provided by the Indian Army.
The army had been planning to change the pattern as well as the material used in the uniform. This was done to make it easy and comfortable to be worn by men and women in the Army.
The new uniform is of digital pattern like the troopers of the US Army use. Also, one of the key features of the uniform is that the soldiers will not have to tuck in the dress. In the new uniform, the belt will be under the dress.
The quality base of SSB is different compared to other defence interviews. Fresher finds it confusing and the repeater perceives it as untangled. Well, the most crucial part of the interview which is a game changer of SSB, is the personal interview in which interviewing officer decides the past, present, and future of a candidate by having a conversation with the candidate.
Several kinds of questions are asked in the personal interview. But the most asked and mind-wracking question in a personal interview is to “tell me about yourself”. Candidates find it hard to select the area and limits that they have to cover while responding to this question.
Basic Introduction – The beginning of this question must be with the basic information about you like your name parents’ name, schooling, percentage of marks, etc. It will show the base of your life and further build-ups in life.
Summarize Everything – Every point of yourself must be explained in a summarized form, not in a lengthy way. It is better in two ways. Firstly, it saves you time and covers all points, and secondly, it doesn’t bore the interviewing officer.
Avoid Absurd and Irrelevant Matter – A single mistake can take you away from your aim or what you want to convey. This can also lead you to the marsh of counter questions where candidates surely get struck. Lying and attempting to the bluff interviewing officer is a wrong practice.
Your Achievements – Most important part of answering this question is to present your achievements in front of IO. No matter how small your achievement is, nobody knows what IO can observe or perceive from your minor achievements. Your skills and qualities are included in this section. Just summarize them and most of the times you will be cross-questioned by Interviews.
End it on Your Current Status – The end of the reply to this question must be in a way that describes your current status of life and your future plans and possibilities. . Your aim and motto behind future advancement should also be a part of the wrapping up of this question.
Avoid non-essential Matters – Don’t include nonessential matters in briefing your personality. Your failures, shortcomings, etc. should not be included in this part. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have any shortcomings, or you have never faced failures. Just brief your time when you are asked about them.
Conclusion
Look at all stone of the route, it is clear that describing yourself is one of the most important questions and requires care to responding to it. So going through all above points, it clears dew from the mirror that summarizing, presenting your achievements simply and making a normal picture of yours in front of the IO without exaggeration and criticism of anything.
Candidates should focus on point wise description which requires practice it is never bad to practice or rehearse but what’s worse is to lie. Never bluff interviewing officer. Be honest, strong, and alert to hear IO clearly along with crystal clear thoughts while attempting this question.
I am Sayak Bhattacharya from Kolkata, West Bengal. I recently got recommended for TES 46 course from 32 SSB Kapurthala. I was the only candidate to get recommended despite the fact that around 285 candidates reported on the day of screening. The art of being distinguishable in the rat race not only requires tremendous hardwork but also utilisation of mind. The age-old saying “Fortune favours the brave” became true in my case. I’m from a pure civil background and I’ll be the first generation from my family to serve in the Indian Armed Forces.
I started my SSB preparations since May 2021 after our board exams were supposedly canceled. I practised the OIR tests on a regular basis for about 2 hours. Then I started with my psychology test preparations. Within a period of 3-4 months, I practised over 6.5K and 7K SRTs & WATs respectively. SSBCrack courses played a vital role in it. Consistency at work will give such desirous results. Then I found that I was having too much of stage fear to be active in PPDT, GD and lecturette. My shy and introverted nature and restricted social life to social media were acting as a hindrance. Henceforth, the only way to overcome it was to be active, interactive, and bust the social fears. At the same time, to master oratory, I started giving speeches on several lecturette topics in front of the camera for about an hour or two daily in a proper setup and background (more like a YouTuber). This helped me develop speaking habits, confidence, voice modulation, gestures and I ended up preparing for about 50 lecturette topics within 2 months. My first and NDA SSB was at 22 SSB Bhopal at the end of September 2021. Unfortunately, I got conferenced out and that shattered me, because joining the Army was my spite and I starved to live the life of a warrior. Over the past months, I underwent a severe change in my mentality, attitude, outlook, perspectives, etc and it gave me jitters and terrified me when I went to college in an environment completely contrary to what I desired. The only solution for me was to study there for three years and prepare for CDS Exam. But 3 years is a long time.
Immediately after coming back from Bhopal, I tried to analyse what could be the possible mistakes I committed. I found that I was giving pre-conceived ideas in psychology tests and it happened due to over-practise. In the GD I was having good amount of knowledge but I was readily countering the points being given by other candidates and hence acting as a hurdle from the rising of a common group idea. I also did not have many ideas in PGT, HGT and FGT.
I never expected that I would be shortlisted for TES 46 SSB as I didn’t score well on boards or JEE. But, with the grace of God it happened and immediately I started working on my previous flaws. I started giving my original ideas for WATs n SRTs and analysed the OLQs in tabular form in the TAT stories I used to do for practice. This acted as a ‘Ram-Baan’ at the psychology test. I gave a couple of psychology tests at a coaching institute and got approval on my tactics and performance. For the GD and GPE, I completely focussed on tactics and endorsements of others’ views and added my contemporary opinion and ideas. This acted well out there. My interview went for a long time for about 1 hr 15 mins. I expected too many technical questions as it was a technical entry but I found that it is the candidate himself who can control the direction of the interview based on the replies, interests and hobbies. Many current affairs, international relations, defence related questions were asked. I realised that my PGT performance would subsequently affect my HGT, Command Task and FGT. In the first PGT obstacle, I analysed the performance of others and used my practical intelligence to surpass them. I became much active, started handling the rope by myself and it acted as ‘Brahmastra’ as I could draw the GTOs attention when I was handling the rope to negotiate with the obstacles by myself and this made others call me frequently in the CT. Finally, I had to wait for about 15 minutes outside the hall and my conference went on for around 10 minutes. Ultimately, I became the only candidate to get recommended from amongst 23 candidates.
It requires tremendous mental preparation to clear the toughest interview in India and become an officer of this prestigious organisation. When I reported for screening, I got a bit nervous about seeing almost 300 candidates ready to compete with me. Soon, I calmed myself and realised that it was a 1 vs 1 war and not a 1 vs 285 because majority of the tasks are based upon individual performances, and so I only have to give my best performance. Neither the presence of so many previously recommended candidates nor IIT students could instill fear in my mind as Bhagavad Gita 6:5 says “the mind can be the friend and also the enemy of the self”.
Indian Army soldiers are bringing glory to the organisation not with their duty but also in National sports. One of the Indian Army Bodybuilders Sep Anish Kumar PS of AMC Centre And College Centre Sports Team won the Silver Medal (70Kg Weight Category) in 13th Mr India Senior Body Building & Physique Championship at Khammam, Telangana. We are proud of our warriors.
Sep Anish Kumar PS of AMC Centre And College Centre Sports Team won the Silver Medal (70Kg Weight Category) in 13th Mr India Senior Body Building & Physique Championship at Khammam, Telangana. We are proud of our warrior. pic.twitter.com/w0UZsLA4yM
The above lines were a prudent source of motivation for me throughout my journey,
Anyways, hello chasers, this is Divyansh Chaudhary from Meerut, U.P and I have recently got recommended for TES-46 from 31 SSB KAPURTHALA in my 3rd attempt.
Lemme start this from the very beginning.
FIRST ATTEMPT:-
It was 600hrs in the morning of 8 FEB 2021 at 1 AFSB DEHRADUN for NDA-146 , me along with a crowd of 190+ guys reported at the main gate. I will keep it short and directly skip to the testing part. I did well in OIR but I literally screwed in discussion or in some ways the whole ppdt. Probably due to futile tips to outperform my groupmates , hence result was as expected , I was SCREENED OUT and about 69 got screened in .
SECOND ATTEMPT:-
Again the same board 1 AFSB on 9 SEPT 2021 (exactly 6 months and 1 day later) for NDA-147 I reported there and since this time I was a lot more maverick and free from fallacious tricks from soo called “coaching valas” I somehow managed to get SCREENED IN . Out of 186 , 74 were screened in.
My phych went well (very well as per my prerogative) and the interview was the best part But being over-expressive in GD and MPE was something that I realized later on through introspection that contributed towards my rejection ultimately. Infact I exerted so much that I had sore throat on the conference day and inspite of being given enough time I stuck a lot in between due to my throat and was conference out and a total 13 guys got recommended along with some of my dearest friends (siddhart , aditya , anurag and aryan) . Off –course I was a borderline case , I even checked my marks in the marksheet released by UPSC recently that I scored 327 marks in the SSB
(360 being the marks needed for the recommendation).
THIRD ATTEMPT:-
Till this attempt I had taken admission in a govt engineering college in Punjab. Moreover, I was enjoying my college life there as the campus was beautiful (just like the gals there). But my love for the uniform and successive failures were like a festering wound where the college life was an effective ointment, but even that couldn’t help me for so long as I knew that the cure only lied in that “+” sign.
I applied for 10+2 TES this time just like my several friends. Being the direct entry I wasn’t having high hopes as its quite evident that the rejection rate is massive. The only objective of mine was to perform with the best of my abilities and leave the rest on the almighty.
About 312 reported on 28 DEC 2021 at SCN KAPURTHALA , the crowd made me a little nervous but I managed to perform my best . only 23 WERE SCREENED IN and my chest no. (60) was called second last. I was myself awestruck at the result , I called my home and proceeded to the documentation , PIQ filling and other banal stuffs . Next day was for phych which I did just like the last time and chilled that day with my like-minded groupies . Before the GTO next day, me and my groupies had a chat regarding how to do things there and we were cooperative enough to make things work , it may be hard to believe but there was hardly any glimpse of fish market scenario in my group (best groupmates one could have ever had) and everyone got to speak 10-12 points in both GDs and GPE and we were undoubtedly happy with my performance.
In PGT , HGT , FGT I participated fairly enough and kept my mates motivated and as my friends told me, I got the hardest command task in my group and was given longest time to do as well.
In individual obstacles I did 11 and even the guy assisting the GTO asked me from where I was and knowing that I was from Meerut he said “ye sala chatak hai”
And when I shouted the name of my girlfriend then he again said “saab mai khrha tha sala bhot chatak hai” and even the GTO was grinning towards me.
This time the interview went quiet smooth . Infact , while waiting outside the IO room , he suddenly came from behind and tapped my shoulder and said “chal aaja” , and that was clearly strange for me as he was the deputy president of the board.
Next day in the conference I was asked that who performed the best from my group , and I shouted out my own chest No. confidently (chest no. 22) . The conference lasted for about
10-15 mins and then an officer came with the results and delivered the results after the routine motivational speech. Only 2 of us made it through , me and chest no. 14 . That time I was totally numb and for next several hours I kept contemplating whether it was really happening or I was just dreaming about it happening as always.
Thanks a lot Khyati Malik for always being there..
Finally , just like the happy endings in the TAT stories my story concluded , the only difference was that it wasn’t really the end as it was the beginning of several lives have to live…! !
