India's current Army, Navy, Air Force chiefs had graduated together

Lieutenant General Manoj Pande was on Monday appointed the new COAS. Incidentally, all three chiefs of India's armed forces now hail from the 61st NDA batch. Also Read | Demolition drive underway in Chandigarh’s Colony number 4; Section 144 imposed After Lieutenant General Manoj Pande was on Monday appointed the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), all three heads of the Indian Armed forces now hail from the same NDA batch. Incidentally, COAS Lieutenant General Manoj Pande, Navy Chief Admiral Hari Kumar and Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari were all part of the 61st NDA batch. While Lieutenant General Manoj Pande was from the Lima squadron, the two other chiefs were from the Juliet squadron of the NDA. Officials said that the three chiefs from the same batch will better the coordination and teaming up between the Army, Air-force and Navy. This will also help during the integration of the theatre commands by the three services. Lt Gen Manoj Pande was appointed as the next Army chief on Monday and will take over from General Naravane as he retires on April 30. Lt Gen Pande will be the first engineer to be appointed as COAS. He is currently the Vice Chief of the Army. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Lt Gen Pande was commissioned into the Bombay Sappers, one of the regiments in the Corps of Engineers in December 1982. He has attended the Staff College, Camberley in the United Kingdom, after which he returned to India and was appointed Brigade Major of a mountain brigade and a corps in the Northeast. Also Read | Farmer unions to visit Lakhimpur Kheri on May 5 to seek justice -PTC News