General
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...
Bikram Singh, (born 1952) is a retired Indian army officer who served as the 24th Chief of Army Staff (COAS) of the
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...
. Previously the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the army's Eastern Command, he succeeded General V. K. Singh as COAS on May 31, 2012. He retired on 31 July 2014. He is the second Sikh to be COAS, the first having been General J. J. Singh. He was also the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (CoSC) of the Indian armed forces.
Military career
Born at Amritsar, he spent his early childhood with his family at Jammu. In 1962, he joined the Punjab Public School, Nabha. The future chief had considered becoming a doctor as he was an exceptional student of Zoology and Biology. But the wars of 1962 and 1965 motivated him to join the NDA in 1968. When asked whether he ever regrets the choice made, Bikram said, "If I were ever to be born again, I would only join the Indian Army."
A graduate of the 40th course at the
National Defence Academy
The National Defence Academy (NDA) is the joint defence service training institute of the Indian Armed Forces, where cadets of the three services i.e. the Indian Army, the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force train together before they go on ...
, Singh was commissioned into the
Sikh Light Infantry
The Sikh Light Infantry is a light infantry regiment of the Indian Army.
He is also a graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, Higher Command Course at Army War College, Mhow and US Army War College, Pennsylvania, USA, where he also won the ‘Annual Public Speaking Award’. Later in December 2013, he was inducted into the US Army War College ‘International Fellows Hall of Fame’. On 18 October 2013, he was awarded ‘The Legion of Merit’ by the United States government for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services.
The General’s Academic Qualifications include MSc (Defence Studies) from Madras University in 1986, M Phil (Defence & Management Studies) from Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore in 1997 and Master of Strategic Studies from US Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, USA in 2004. In addition, the General was conferred with two Honorary Degrees of ‘Doctorate of Science’ by SGGS World University, Punjab in 2016 by the Chief Minister of Punjab and GNDU, Amritsar on 31 May 2018 by the Union HRD Minister Sh. Prakash Javadekar.
Gen Bikram Singh has served in three UN missions in Nicaragua (ONUCA), El Salvador (ONUSAL) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC). While in the first two missions he was the Chief operations Officer, in MONUC, he was the General Officer Commanding of a Multinational Division in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His Division contributed immensely in the initiation of ‘Goma Peace Process’. During his tenure in Congo, the current Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army
Qamar Javed Bajwa
General Qamar Javed Bajwa ( ur, ; born 11 November 1960) is a retired Pakistani army general who served as the tenth Chief of the Army Staff of Pakistan from 29 November 2016 to 29 November 2022. In 2018 he was ranked 68th in the ''Forbes' ...
served under his command as a brigade commander.
He has been the President of Indian Golf Union from 2012 to 2013 and the President of Indian Polo Association from June 2012 to 31 July 2014
After completing the Higher Command Course, he served his first tenure as a Director in the Military Operations (MO) Directorate. The tenure coincided with the
Kargil War
The Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict, was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LoC). In India, the conflict is also referr ...
and he was the official spokesperson of the Army during that period. He went on to serve four important tenures at Army HQ: an additional tenure in the MO Directorate as the Deputy Director General, two tenures in the Perspective Planning Directorate, as the Deputy Director General of Perspective Planning (Strategy) and later, as the Additional Director General. He was posted back to the Army HQ as a Lieutenant General to serve as the Director General Staff Duties before taking over as Eastern Army Commander. Colleagues remember him for being a 'soldier's soldier' for spending time and working hard with his troops on the ground.
He has held positions of General Officer-Commanding-in-ChiefEastern Command,
XV Corps 15th Corps, Fifteenth Corps, or XV Corps may refer to:
*XV Corps (British India)
* XV Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German Army prior to and during World War I
* 15th Army Corps (Russian Empire), a unit in World War I
*XV Royal Bav ...
, GOC 10th Infantry Division, Commander of Rashtriya Rifles Sector and GOC of the Multi-National Eastern Division in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
. He was wounded while posted as a
Brigadier
Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. I ...
Bikram Singh retired as Chief of Army Staff on 31 July 2014. He was succeeded by
General
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...
Dalbir Singh Suhag
General Dalbir Singh Suhag, PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC (born 28 December 1954) is the former Indian High Commissioner to Seychelles and a former Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army. He was the 25th Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) of the ...
.
Post retirement he has continuously expressed views on strategic Mountain Strike Corps (MSC), with presentations.
Awards and decorations
Dates of rank
Family
Bikram Singh is married to Surjeet Kaur and the couple has two children.