By IANS
New Delhi : Lt. Gen. Deepak Kapoor, the current vice chief of Army Staff, will be its next chief, it was announced Thursday. The incumbent Chief of Army Staff Gen. J.J. Singh retires Sep 30.
Born in 1948, Kapoor was commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery on June 11, 1967. An alumnus of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, he has had a long career of 40 years in the service, during which he has worked in a variety of command, staff and instructional positions.
He took active part in the 1971 operations in Bangladesh and served as the chief operations officer of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission that was deployed in Somalia during 1994-95.
Kapoor was in charge of the largest and the most sensitive command of the Indian Army, the Northern Command, from Sep 5, 2005 to Dec 31, 2006. The officer was awarded the Param Vishist Seva Medal in January this year.