Sundararajan Padmanabhan

General Sundararajan Padmanabhan PVSM, AVSM, VSM

Nickname(s)	Paddy
Born	(1940-12-05)5 December 1940
Allegiance	India
Service/branch	Indian Army
Years of service	1959-2002
Rank	General
Unit	Regiment of Artillery
Commands held	Southern Army Northern Army Director General Military Intelligence (DGMI) XV Corps
Awards	Param Vishisht Seva Medal Ati Vishisht Seva Medal Vishisht Seva Medal

General Sundararajan Padmanabhan PVSM, AVSM, VSM (born 5 December 1940 in Thiruvananthapuram, Travancore), is a former Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army.^[1] Gen. Padmanabhan succeeded General V.P. Malik on September 30, 2000.^[1] He also served as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.^[2]

Padmanabhan was schooled at the Rashtriya Indian Military College. In 1956, Padmanabhan joined the National Defence Academy and, in 1959 was enrolled into the Regiment of Artillery.^[1]

He commanded an Infantry Brigade from December 1988 to February 1991 at Ranchi, Bihar and Punjab and was then appointed as the General Officer Commanding of an Infantry Division in Punjab from March 1991 to August 1992. He served as Chief of Staff, III Corps from September 1992 to June 1993. After his promotion to Lieutenant General, he was Commander of the XV Corps in the Kashmir valley from July 1993 to February 1995. It was during his tenure as the XV Corps Commander, that the Army made big gains over the militants in Kashmir and could even scale down its operations. He was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) for his services as the XV Corps Commander.

General Padmanabhan held the appointment of Director General Military Intelligence (DGMI) after the successful culmination of which, he took over as the GOC-in-C of the Northern Command at Udhampur on 1 September 1996. Before being appointed as the Chief of Army Staff, he was the GOC-in-C of Southern Command. He retired on 31 December 2002, after completing more than 43 years of distinguished military service. He has authored two books. He presently resides in Chennai.^[3]

Author

Gen. Padmanabhan is also an author of Indian military fiction, including the 2004 novel Writing on the Wall, the plot of which involves India fighting a war simultaneously with Pakistan while improving relations with China.

Honours and awards

Military awards

	Param Vishisht Seva Medal	Ati Vishist Seva Medal
Vishisht Seva Medal	Siachen Glacier Medal	Special Service Medal	Raksha Medal
Sangram Medal	Operation Vijay Medal	Sainya Seva Medal	50th Anniversary of Independence Medal
25th Anniversary of Independence Medal	30 Years Long Service Medal	20 Years Long Service Medal	9 Years Long Service Medal

References

Military offices
Preceded by Ved Prakash Malik	Chief of Army Staff 2000–2002	Succeeded by Nirmal Chander Vij

Chief of the Army Staff (India)

Commander-in-Chief, Indian Army (1947–1955)	Rob Lockhart Roy Bucher Kodandera M. Cariappa Rajendrasinhji Jadeja

Chief of the Army Staff (1955–present)	Rajendrasinhji Jadeja S. M. Shrinagesh Kodandera Subayya Thimayya Pran Nath Thapar Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri Paramasiva Prabhakar Kumaramangalam Sam Manekshaw Gopal Gurunath Bewoor Tapishwar Narain Raina Om Prakash Malhotra K. V. Krishna Rao Arun Shridhar Vaidya Krishnaswamy Sundarji Vishwa Nath Sharma Sunith Francis Rodrigues Bipin Chandra Joshi Shankar Roychowdhury Ved Prakash Malik Sundararajan Padmanabhan Nirmal Chander Vij Joginder Jaswant Singh Deepak Kapoor Vijay Kumar Singh Bikram Singh Dalbir Singh Bipin Rawat (designate)

(**Seconded from the British Army)

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