Overview
- The Defence Ministry announced on Saturday that President has approved Lt Gen Dhiraj Seth as the next Chief of the Army Staff, with the appointment to take effect on the afternoon of June 30, 2026.
- Seth will formally succeed General Upendra Dwivedi when Dwivedi retires on June 30 and will hold the substantive rank of General with a tenure running through August 31, 2028.
- He is currently serving as Vice Chief of the Army Staff, a post he assumed on April 1, 2026, and will move from that role into the top job at the end of the month.
- Seth’s record includes command of an armoured regiment and brigade, a counter-insurgency force in Jammu and Kashmir, the Sudarshan Chakra strike corps, and leadership of both the South Western and Southern army commands.
- Defence statements and reporting say he shaped capability planning at Army Headquarters and that his appointment — the first Armoured Corps officer to be COAS since 1997 — could accelerate mechanised strike focus, indigenisation and integration of new technologies into force structure.