New Delhi:

For the first time in Indian military history, two classmates, Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi and Admiral Dinesh Tripathi, will be service chiefs of Indian Army and Navy.

Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi and Army Chief Designate Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi studied at the Sainik School, Rewa, in Madhya Pradesh. They were together in the school from class 5th-A in the early 1970s.

The roll numbers of the two officers were also around each other, as Lt Gen Dwivedi’s roll number was 931 and Admiral Tripathi’s was 938.

Their bonding was strong from the initial days in the school and they remained in touch all along, even though they were in different forces.

A defence official who knows both the officers said strong friendships among the senior leadership in the military matter a lot in strengthening the working relationship between the forces.

“This rare honour of nurturing two prodigious students, who would go on to lead their respective Services 50 years later, goes to Sainik School, Rewa, in Madhya Pradesh,” Defence Ministry Spokesperson A Bharat Bhushan Babu said in a tweet.

For the first time in Indian Military history, Chiefs of Navy and Army hail from the same school. This rare honour of nurturing two prodigious students, who would go on to lead their respective Services 50 years later, goes to Sainik School, Rewa in Madhya Pradesh. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/52FMCO01qM

— A. Bharat Bhushan Babu (@SpokespersonMoD) June 29, 2024

The appointments of the two classmates have also come around the same time, in a gap of around two months.

Admiral Tripathi took over the command of the Indian Navy on May 1, while Lt Gen Dwivedi will be taking over his new appointment tomorrow.

Lt Gen Dwivedi has had a long tenure as the Northern Army Commander where he’s had exposure to the ongoing operations in the military standoff on the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.

Born on July 1, 1964, Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi was commissioned into the Jammu & Kashmir Rifles of the Indian Army on December 15, 1984.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The geopolitical landscape is facing unprecedented changes and today nations have shown the willingness to use hard power, the Chief of Army Staff, General Manoj Pande, said at the maiden NDTV Defence Summit today.

The Army chief said the centrality of national interest and the growing salience of national security in the international system are distinctly visible. Today Nations have shown willingness to resort to the use of heart power to secure their interest. A situation of return to conflict to achieve political and military objectives., adding that “While conventional warfare has gone under changes, emerging technologies today are not central only to rich nations. Disruptive technology is transforming warfare.” 

Asymmetry In Warfare

Access to modern technologies is not limited to superpowers but non-state actors can access such technology. The asymmetry in conflict has increased the risk of a fallout with an increased propensity of risk-taking behaviour to initiate a low-threshold armed conflict, the army chief said.

General Pande said, “Our legacy challenges of unsettled borders continue and newer threats in the spectrum of conflict have added complexity and the grey zone actions and aggressions from adversaries are manifesting across domains – Land, sea, and air.”

Army’s Vision For Future

General Pande stressed the fact that we need to secure our national interest and the focus should be on possessing capabilities that require continuous progression. Highlighting the vision of the Army, the COAS said, the Indian Army, a large land-based force, has to transform into an agile, future-ready force that can operate in a multi-domain environment and have synergy with other forces. These elements are important for the force to be future-ready.

The Army Chief said, “Swadeshikaran (indigenisation) se sashaktikaran (empowerment)” is a work in progress. All sectors have a crucial role to play. It is essential to develop core competencies.

Aatmanirbharta or self-reliance in defence manufacturing and procurement has been a vision as well as a goal of governments. The Indigenous defense industry is critical for war-fighting capability. The Army Chief said the disruption in the supply chain in the Russia-Ukraine conflict has highlighted how wars can disrupt in supply of technology and weapons and it also entails the risk that nations may not transfer critical technology. To pursue our aspirations, self-reliance is important and sustenance of the existing ones is necessary too. 

The transformational nature of war hybridization of threats and the emergence of cyber war has brought the focus on the development of safeguarding platforms with technology.

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cyber biotechnology, and space – It is essential to harness these technologies and use them in defense, the Army Chief said, adding that our technological prowess has been a driver for global tech. The government has taken initiatives to promote an effective ecosystem in the country that enables simplification of industry in licensing, foreign investment, and Research and Development projects. The establishment of defence corridors and others are such steps.