By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 31 Aug: Lt Gen Harinder Singh, Commandant, Indian Military Academy, bid adieu to Olive Green here, today, after an illustrious career spanning over nearly 40 years and having held important Command, Staff and Instructional appointments.
During a simple and solemn ceremony held at the War Memorial, IMA, the General Officer paid homage to the soldiers, who in the line of duty laid down their lives for the Nation.
An alumnus of NDA, Khadakvasla, the General Officer was commissioned into the 9 Maratha Light Infantry, one of the oldest regiments of the Indian Army. He excelled in Hockey at the Academy and is a former Services Hockey player. He later commanded a Rashtriya Rifles Battalion in active counter terrorist operations while deployed in the Kupwara Sector.
He also had varied operational experience in different terrain. Lt Gen Singh also has the distinction of commanding two different brigades, which includes command of the most reputed UN Multinational Brigade deployed in Eastern Congo and an Infantry Brigade along the Western Border. He commanded a mountain division in Kashmir & a Corps along the active Northern Borders.
Earlier, he also served with Military Operation and Operational Logistics Directorates in the rank of Major and Colonel respectively. As a Brigadier, he was instrumental in raising the Directorate of Indian Army Veterans (DIAV) at the Army HQs. He has also been an instructor at IMA, Dehradun, and Infantry School, Mhow. He served as a Staff Officer at the UN Mission in Angola. He attended the Defence Services Staff College, Higher Command Course and excelled in research work at the National Defence College, New Delhi, for which he was awarded the Colonel Pyare Lal Gold Medal. He has also been an international graduate fellow at Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies, Hawaii, USA.
The Commandant has held two fellowships in his service career as a Research Fellow at IDSA, New Delhi, and later at S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore, and published several monographs, papers and write-ups in international and national journals and dailies.
As Commandant of IMA, he hosted Ram Nath Kovind, President of India, as the Reviewing Officer for the Parade on 11 December, 2021. He has made various initiatives in IMA in terms of conceptualising the curriculum for institutionalised leadership training to produce the finest future officer cadre for the Indian Army. He has also formulated the vision for a state of the art IMA Library, Innovation Lab and many other infrastructure works for training in domains of modern day warfare.
The General Officer handed over the Command Baton of the Indian Military Academy to Lt Gen VK Mishra, the 51st Commandant of IMA.