General Upendra Dwivedi assumes charge as 30th Indian Army chief

Sub: Polity

Sec: Msc

Context:

General Upendra Dwivedi took over as the 30th Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) of the 1.3 million Indian Army on June 30 from General Manoj Pande who superannuated after more than four decades of service.

About Chief of the Army Staff (COAS):

The Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) is a statutory office held by the professional head of the Indian Army (IA), the land forces branch of the Indian Armed Forces.
Customarily held by a four-star general officer, the COAS is the senior-most operational officer of the Indian Army.
COAS is tasked with the roles of overseeing the overall functioning of the force during peace and wartime, committing to the preparation and maintenance of the force’s operational effectiveness and defending the nation’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Also a permanent member of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) and the National Security Council (NSC), the COAS also bears the responsibility of advising the nation’s civilian leadership i.e., the Government of India on all matters privy to the IA.
Statutorily, the COAS ranks 12th-overall in the Indian order of precedence, and is the IA’s status-equivalent of the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of the Naval Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff – all three positions of which are also occupied by four-star officers from the armed forces.