General Manoj Pande, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC, the Chief of the Army Staff, will be on a two-day visit to the city on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, he will deliver the keynote address in the Zero Mile Samvad summit at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Nagpur on Saturday. The General Officer, who is The Colonel Commandant of The Bombay Sappers, hails from Nagpur. He is the 29th Chief of the Army Staff. General Manoj Pande will deliver the keynote address on the topic ‘Growth Through Defence: Indian Army’s Role in Securing India’s Growth Story’. The keynote address is scheduled at 4.15 pm at the Convention Centre in IIM-Nagpur campus. Prior to his session, there will be a panel discussion from 3.30 pm at the Convention Centre. Lt Gen Vineet Gaur, AVSM, Director General (Capability Development); Maj Gen Vasudhesh Arya (retd), Executive Director, Solar Group, will speak on ‘Possibility or a Dream: Can India’s Defence Become Self-Reliant Without Sacrificing Global Standards?’. Prof Shailendra Nigam, Faculty, IIM-Nagpur, will moderate the panel discussion.

 

As per the agenda of the Zero Mile Samvad, the panel discussion and keynote by General Manoj Pande may touch upon various aspects including the strategies that India can implement to ensure a self-reliant and globally competitive defence industry, initiatives required to nurture the talent needed for a self-reliant defence industry, and role that emerging enterprises can play in advancing self-reliance and technological innovation in defence sector. In his four decades of distinguished military career, General Manoj Pande has tenanted important and challenging command and staff appointments in different operational environments which include command of an Engineer Brigade in the Western Theatre, as part of Strike Corps, an Infantry Brigade along Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, a Mountain Division in the High Altitude Area of Western Ladakh and command of a Corps, deployed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and in Counter Insurgency Operations area of Eastern Command.

 

The General Officer has served as Chief Engineer in the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea. He has also tenanted the appointments of Additional Director General in the Military Operations Directorate at Army Headquarters, Chief of Staff Headquarters Southern Command, and Director General Discipline Ceremonial & Welfare at the Army Headquarters. He was Commander-in-Chief Andaman & Nicobar Command (CINCAN) from June 2020 to May 2021, and General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Command from June 2021 to January 2022. He held the appointment of Vice Chief of Army Staff before assuming the appointment of the Chief of the Army Staff on April 30, 2022.