Lt Gen Kapoor to take over as Army vice chief

Lt Gen Deepak Kapoor will on Monday assume office as the Indian Army vice chief in place of Lt Gen S Pattabhiraman.

Lt Gen Deepak Kapoor will on Monday assume office as the Indian Army vice chief in place of Lt Gen S Pattabhiraman, who retired on Sunday after four decades of service.

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Kapoor is likely to be elevated to Army chief when incumbent Gen JJ Singh retires in September 2007.

Pattabhiraman, meanwhile, has also handed over the baton of colonel commandant of the Bombay Sappers to Lt Gen Noble Thamburaj, who will assume the office on Monday.

During his 40 years of service, Pattabhiraman held various appointments, which included being the defence attaché to Turkey, the first director general of information systems of the Indian Army, and head of Western Command, the Army's largest operational command.

As vice chief, "he has been instrumental in ensuring a high state of operational preparedness at all times, besides conceptualising the Army's vision for the decade ahead", an official statement said.

In association with the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, Pattabhiraman provided the impetus to senior officers to join the corporate world as independent directors by steering a weeklong course on the subject.

Thamburaj is an alumnus of the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington and the National Defence College, Delhi. A Masters in Building Science from IIT, Delhi, he has had a stellar career and presently commands 11 Corps.