Facts about Indian Army

Indian Army is the land based branch of Indian Armed Forces. It is also the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The supreme head of the Indian army is called “Chief of Army Staff”. Its headquarters is in New Delhi. The lowest commissioned rank of Indian army is Officer Cadet while the Highest rank is General. Field Marshal is the top most of all but it is considered as Honorary post. Only two persons have reached up to the level of Field Marshal, they are K M Kariappa and Sam Manekshaw. Indian Army was established on 1 April 1895 as British Indian Army.  Chief of Army staff or Chairman of Chief of Staff Committee is of “General” rank.

Present Chief of Army Staff – Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag
Vice Chief of Army Staff – Lt. Gen. Philip Campose
Chairman of Chief of Staff Committee – Gen. Bikram Singh

Strength of Indian Army

There are 11.29 Lakhs of Active personnel available and 9.6 Lakhs of Reserve personnel with Indian Army.

Indian Army Day
Indian army day is celebrated on 15 Jan every year in the memory of K M Kariappa for taking over the post of first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army from General Francis Butcher. General Francis Buthcher was the last British Commander in Chief of Indian Army.

Commissioned Ranks in Indian Army

(In order of precedence)

Field Marshal

General

Lieutenant General

Major General

Brigadier

Colonel

Lieutenant Colonel

Major

Captain

Lieutenant

Junior Commissioned Ranks in Indian Army

(in order of precedence)

Subedar Major

Subedar

Naib Subedar

Havaldar

Naik

Lance Naik

Regiments of Indian Army

There are three main regiments of Indian Army. Infantry Regiments, Armoured Regiments, Artillery Regiments.

i) Infantry Regiment of Indian Army

There are total 32 Infantry Regiments. The most notable infantry regiments are  Punjab Regiment, The Madras Regiment, The Grenadiers, Rajput Regiment, Jat Regiment, Sikh Regiment, The Garhwal Rifles, Kumaon Regiment, Assam Regiment, Bihar Regiment, Jammu and Kashmir Rifles, Rashtriya Rifles, Gorkha Rifles etc
Madras Regiment is the oldest Regiment of Infantries and it was established in year 1758 in Tamil Nadu (then Madras State).

ii) Armoured Regiments of Indian Army

At present there are 63 armoured regiments present. The most notable armoured regiments are – President’s Bodygaurd, 1 Horse, 2 Lancers, 3rd Cavalery, 4 Horse, 5 Armoured Regiment, 16 Cavelry, 40 Armoured Regiment, 45 Cavelry, 61 Cavelry etc

The 61st Cavalry Regiment is the largest horse-mounted cavalry unit still operational in whole world. This regiment is used not for war time but for internal security, Police assistence and Parades.

iii) Artillery Regiment of Indian Army

This regiment is active from 1827. At that time it was known as Royal Indian Artilery of British Indian Army. Its headquarters is in Nashik. This regiment is the one which uses fire powers during war. During Kargil war the Artilery regiment used Pinaka multi barrel rocket launchers which caused maximum damage to Pakistani intruders.

Commands of Indian Army

The army is organized into seven commands –

Command	Headquarters
Eastern Command	Kolkata
Western Command	Chandigarh
Northern Command	Udhampur
Southern Command	Pune
Central Command	Lucknow
North Western Command	Jaipur
Army Training Command	Shimla

Each command is controlled by a General officer Commanding in Chief of the rank of Lieutenant General