Chandigarh: Lieutenant General Manjinder Singh took over as the 24th General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Shimla-based Army Training Command on December 1. Prior to this, he was serving as Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Policy, Planning and Force Development. He succeeds Lt Gen Surinder Singh Mahal, who has superannuated.

Commissioned into 19 Madras in December 1986, Lt Gen Manjinder Singh is an alumnus of Sainik School Kapurthala, National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla and the Indian Military Academy. He commanded his battalion in an intense counter-insurgency environment in Jammu and Kashmir, an infantry brigade on the Line of Control, an infantry division as part of a strike corps and a corps deployed along the Line of Control in counter insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

Besides varied staff appointments in corps and commands along the western front and in the counter insurgency operations environment, he has been an Instructor at the Indian Military Academy and Indian Military Training Team in Bhutan. He has attended the National Defence College course in Thailand.

Lt Gen Manjinder has been decorated with the Yudh Seva Medal and Vishist Seva Medal. He is the Colonel of the Madras Regiment.