General (retd) Bipin Rawat passed away in December 2021. In which year did he take office as India’s first Chief of Defence Staff?

Question

Question

Answer 1

The correct answer is 2020.

Key Points

General (retd) Bipin Rawat, India’s first Chief of Defence Staff General, passed away in December 2021.
An Indian Air Force helicopter ferrying him and 13 others crashed near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu.
Rawat, a former Indian army chief, took office as the first CDS on 1 January 2020 at the start of a three-year term.
He was the one point defence advisor to the Defence Minister.
He took the office of Chief of Army Staff as the 27th Chief of Army Staff on 31 December 2016, after the retirement of General Dalbir Singh Suhag.

Important Points

The crash took place as Rawat was on his way to the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington.
He was travelling in the Mi17V5 helicopter which is seen as an advanced military transport chopper that has been with the IAF since 2012.
It is manufactured by the Russian Helicopters' subsidiary Kazan.

Additional Information

In 1963, a crash near Poonch in Kashmir killed Lt General Daulat Singh, General Officer Commanding in Chief, Western Command, Let General Bikram Singh, Corps Commander, Major General N.D. Nanawati, Brigadier Sri Ram Oberoi, Air Vice Marshal E.W. Pinto, Air Officer Commanding in Chief, Western Command and Flight Lt.S.S Sodhi.
The security protocol evolved after the 1963 crash deemed that no two senior officers of the same force or different forces would travel in the same chopper – especially the chiefs of the three services.