Lt Gen Ajai Kumar Singh Takes Over As Chief Of Army's Southern Command

Lieutenant General Ajai Kumar Singh assumed command of the Indian Army's Southern Command on Tuesday and will replace Lieutenant General J S Nain, the outgoing Army Commander, according to the defence ministry statement.

After taking charge, he laid a wreath at the Southern Command War Memorial in Pune to honour the dead soldiers. Lieutenant General J S Nain, the outgoing Army Commander, stepped down on Monday.

Singh was commissioned into the 7/11 Gorkha Rifles in December 1984 after graduating from the National Defence Academy in Pune and the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun.

According to the statement, he has extensive operational expertise in all types of terrain, including counter-insurgency zones, high elevations and freezing glaciated parts of Siachen and the desert sector.

He led the 1/11 Gorkha Rifles on the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, an elite brigade in the Western Theatre, a frontline counterinsurgency force in the Kashmir Valley and the Trishakti Corps in the North East.

Singh has also held significant instructional and staff positions at the Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence (Army), New Delhi, including Instructor at Commando Wing, Belgaum, Additional Director General of Military Operations and Director General (Operational Logistic & Strategic Movement).

He was also a diplomat soldier, serving as Officer-in-Charge, PPO Dharan at the Indian Embassy in Nepal.