New Delhi
Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat was on Monday appointed the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff whose mandate will be to bring in convergence in functioning of the Army, the Navy and the Indian Air Force.According to a government order, Gen Rawat has been appointed CDS with effect from December 31.

He has been given an extension in service till the period he is serving as CDS.Two days ago, the government amended service rules of the forces to allow the CDS to serve till 65 years of age.

He was commissioned into the 5/11 Gorkha Rifles in 1978 when passed out from the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun. He was the ‘sword of honour’ of his batch, meaning the best performing cadet.In February 2015, when posted as Commander of the 3 Corps at Dimapur, he was lucky enough to survive a helicopter crash.

In December 2016, he was picked up as Army chief superseding two senior-most Commanders of that time, Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Parveen Bakshi and Southern-Army Commander Lt Gen PM Hariz.Before December 2016, an Army commander was superseded was when General AS Vaidya was appointed Army chief in July 1983.

It was during General Rawat’s tenure as Army chief, that India and China were locked in stand-off at Doklam in 2017.It was the second longest standoff between the Armies of the two countries along the un-demarcated Line of Actual Control .

On its part, the Indian side had dug in its heels in the military stand-off at Doklam. It was reminiscent of a similar event at Sumdrong Chu in north-western part of Arunachal Pradesh.